Touched by an Angel
by loonie lupin
Summary: A series of one-shot about Harry and Castiel relationship, from that fateful Halloween night to the end of the battle against Lucifer. Complete
1. Lightening

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** Castiel in given his next mission**.  
****For: **crossovers100  
******Prompt:** 068. Lightening**  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**068. Lightening**.

Castiel joined Uriel swiftly where he had been called by the fellow angel. He hadn't been told a lot yet, only that their Lord had a mission for him. They were both invisible to the human eyes even though they were walking the Earth, being there to observe something, what he had no idea yet. For now, the place seemed calm, peaceful, but Castiel could already feel the beginning of a slight change in the atmosphere, indicating something was on the verge of happening.

"Why are we here?" he asked Uriel, looking straight in front of him at the house, knowing the other angel didn't need him to look at him to know he was respected.

Uriel waited the time of a human heartbeat before giving him the answer he was looking for.

"Tonight you're doing to be given a new charge. You will have to watch over him, keep an eye on him all his life long. However, Castiel, it is a special case."

"Special?"

Now Castiel was really curious. He had never yet been given a special case, the humans he had watched over were special for him – and for his Lord – but never to the point of needing it to be mentioned.

"Yes," Uriel answered solemnly, knowing the importance the little man would have in the future. "This child has been marked by fate. His destiny cannot be altered by either our Lord or Lucifer. His path will be his alone. He will have to make his choices himself."

He paused for a second.

"His life… his life will be hard, destiny has seen to it, and you are not to intervene. You have to watch over, so that when the time come his destiny has been completed, you can tell our Lord whether he should go on living or has become too much of a danger for the world."

Castiel didn't respond to the instructions which had been given. It wasn't his place to question the will of the Lord. Instead, he asked another question.

"The child is living here?" Castiel inquired, already knowing it was the only reason they were there at this moment.

"For tonight, still. But tonight, Destiny will be set in motion. His people will take him elsewhere and you will follow. Wherever he goes, you will watch over. It is more important than everything else."

Castiel suddenly felt something coming, something so dark he almost couldn't breathe. He looked back at the house, seeing a shadow approach, walking like flying. He could feel from where he stood, the unnaturalness of the creature he could not dare call human, for it would be an offense to the Lord who had created humans at his image. This… thing wasn't human anymore, he had been altered by so much darkness that it wasn't possible to recognize his nature as anything other than a demon.

"His fate has been set in motion," Uriel said in a matter-of-factly voice as they heard the screaming, the fighting and finally the crying of an infant as a green flash washed over the house. "Chose your path wisely Harry James Potter."

Once that was said, he disappeared from sight, leaving Castiel on his own to observe the desolation which was taking hold of the house, burning flames and destruction being all that was left of the beautiful place. He saw different people coming and going until, finally, the little child, the baby he had been sent to watch, was lifted from the cradle of ruins and taken into the loving arms of a giant, whose sorrow at the attack was written on his face, a giant who was much more human than most people Castiel had watched evolving on the planet throughout the years.

His heart heavy from the burden of witnessing such damages in the existence of a child so young, unable to comprehend what was going on, Castiel went with him, following the giant riding on his flying motorcycle like only an angel can do, never letting the child out of his sight, feeling the pull all angels felt towards those they were chosen to watch over. It was what made it so easy to attach yourself to them but Castiel knew he had to stay at a distance because children of men, gifted or cursed with free will, were so easily set on the wrong path, a path no angel could follow, it would be too hard to be separated from them if you couldn't keep a kind of detachment while loving them, never putting them before the Lord and his will because, maybe, you would be brought to the point where His orders would be to destroy them.

Eventually, they stopped in another street, so unlike the one before. The giant joined two people, people who were, apparently, wand-wielders, and now Castiel knew that the little baby given to the old man was also one of them. He would be able to do magic later in his life, an inherent magic so unlike the one that required a pact with demons. Yet, so often, those who were gifted with it chose to use their gifts unwisely, the same way, for their own gain and at the expense of another. The child would have a difficult choice to make because, no matter how inherited, power corrupted.

Castiel knew that powers, human powers, corrupted. Powers coming directly from Him, like those given to the angel at His orders, were different. Angels so pure they couldn't be corrupted, only when fallen and that was the reason why God didn't let angels who had fallen keep their power anymore, not after Lucifer.

Castiel watched over the child as he was left in a cradle on the doorstep of a house like every other house on the street. He walked toward the baby as the magic user disappeared after ringing the bell and leaving the child in the night, and crouched down in front of the infant.

The little child was sleeping peacefully, despite the tragic events that had happened mere hours ago. He was still unaware that he would never again see his parents. Such innocence had always been a marvel to Castiel.

His eyes fell on the lightning bolt engraved in the flesh of the little man's forehead through the meeting of white and black magic. Now he could see that the child who had been already marked by Fate spiritually was now also marked physically.

He noticed the light being put on in the house and heard the footsteps of people approaching the front door, probably wondering who had rung at this hour of the night. He smiled at the little man and whispered in his ears, in a voice no one could have heard, no matter how close.

"Sleep well, Harry Potter. I will watch over you."

Barely had the words left his mouth that he disappeared once again as the door was pulled open. From now on, he would watch from afar, as was his duty.


	2. Cold

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** Harry is freezing in his cupboard. Castiel intervenes.**.  
****For: **crossovers100  
******Prompt:** 086. Cold**  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**086. Cold.**

In his cupboard under the stair, Harry was shivering. In all of his five years of existence, the little boy didn't think he had ever felt that cold, not even the one night he had found himself locked out of the house because Uncle Vernon had been mad he hadn't been able to finish the gardening in time and had locked the door before Harry could come in. That night had been in the middle of summer and it was very warm outside. To be truthful, Harry hadn't really minded staying outside all that much. He hadn't felt safe, because it was never safe to be outside alone, but at least he knew he wouldn't sweat all night long like he usually did during the summer because his cupboard was overheated.

Tonight, though, it was different because the cupboard was freezing. He could see his breath. It was because the radiator inside the place he called his room wasn't working and the Dursleys didn't exactly have what you could call a vast interest in Harry's health so they didn't care about. Oh, they would probably get it repaired one of these days but it was certainly not a top priority.

His thin little blanket wasn't nearly enough to keep him warm and his teeth simply would stop chattering. He had curled in on himself to try to get a bit warmer but it wasn't working. His little body was suffering and, had he been older, he would have known he was already on the verge of hypothermia, with his lips and extremities blue. Of course, he had no way of knowing that.

All he knew was that he was cold, that he felt as if he would never be able to get warm again. Yet, he wasn't all that aware of it. He was seeing it with a kind of detachment, as if he was observing something happening to someone else. He was already beginning to lose the fight against sleep and, unbeknown to him, against death. If he went to sleep now, he would probably never wake up again but, once again, he didn't know that. And why would he fight against the comfort of being somewhere else, somewhere he wouldn't feel the cold anymore.

Castiel, who was watching his charge attentively, yet without revealing himself to the boy, could feel Harry's will to fall asleep and, with it, the spark that allowed him to live beginning to fade away. He knew that, once his eyes were closed, the little boy wouldn't live very longer. Besides, even if he somehow managed the miracle of staying awake, he would probably not survive until dawn. The night was too cold, the coldest Britain had known in decades, and there was no way the man-child would have the strength to stay in this world, not with his little body so malnourished.

He knew he wasn't supposed to interfere in the live of his charge. It was one of the rules he had to follow when he took a human under his wing, so to speak. However, if the kid was so important, as special as Uriel had made him to be – and Castiel could feel deep inside him that it was the case – he knew that he had to stay alive. Castiel needed to help and he needed to do it now, before it was too late.

Harry was beginning to lose the battle with consciousness when he felt something touching him. It wasn't a physical touch, no, but it felt like a kind of embrace. He could feel the warmth, not like the warmth of the radiator but a kind of warmth he had only known in his sleep, usually when he dreamed of the redheaded woman with green eyes. He didn't know who she was but, in his dreams, her presence always made him feel safe and loved. Harry had always loved to imagine the woman watching over him and, sometimes, it was as if he could feel her presence even when he was awake.

Now he could feel the same warmth and it was so nice, like he was in one of his dreams. Maybe he was. He knew he could have felt asleep without realizing but it was strange. Normally, in his dream, he was never this tired and the cupboard was never there, only in his nightmares. Yet, he was in the cupboard but it didn't feel like a nightmare so, maybe, it was real.

Again, his tiredness overwhelmed him and he felt himself slid down toward sleep. It wasn't the same sensation though. Before, it had felt like surrendering but, this time, it was as if he was sliding towards something welcoming, something peaceful. Yet he was fighting more than before because he didn't want to escape the cold anymore. He wanted to stay awake to feel the presence and he knew that, if he felt asleep, it would be gone once he woke up because it always went away when he woke up, like the woman.

Yet he found himself unable to go on fighting. Just as his eyes fluttered close, he felt something on his forehead. It was like the brushing of a hand or maybe lips. Harry wasn't sure. No one had made any gesture like this toward him but he had seen Petunia do it to Dudley countless times, even sometimes Uncle Vernon but only if Dudley was sick. Harry had always tried to imagine what it would feel like and he thought that was it.

He wanted to know who was touching him like no one ever did before, who would show him love, so he concentrated on opening his eyes before it was too late. As it was, he actually saw something, something that would have had most people afraid but which didn't bother Harry at all. It was a pair of blue eyes, blue like the sky but way much bluer and deeper and they seemed kind and nice and warmth and everything like the eyes of the woman of his dreams – well, expect for the color but that wasn't really important. He could see the love in them and it wasn't the same kind of love he saw in Aunt Petunia's eyes when she watched Dudley. It was something deeper and that made him smile because there was at least someone who loved him.

Finally, he felt his eyes close once again and, this time, he didn't fight it. He slept, for hours, feeling safer and more peaceful than ever before. And when he woke up, the presence may have been gone but he still felt safe and warm. He saw the radiator working once again and thought that maybe everything had been just a dream, encouraged by the warmth of the radiator but, just in case Harry hadn't imagined it, he looked up.

"Thank you," the little boy murmured, stars in his eyes as he addressed his guardian angel.

Castiel, still watching over attentively, smiled as he saw his young charge happier than ever.

"You're welcome little one."


	3. Light

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** Harry is ready to do something drastic**. **Castiel stops him.  
******For: **crossovers100  
******Prompt:** 073. Light.**  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**073. Light.**

Castiel had been exceptionally carefully after that night. He knew he had breached the contract when he had intervened but, thankfully, there was no repercussion. He imagined it was because his Lord was aware it had to be done if they wanted Harry to be able to face his Destiny in the future. He wasn't absolutely certain and he had not wanted to ask. He didn't want to risk attracting attention on that. It was better for everyone concerned it they all pretended it hadn't happened in the first place.

Yet, he had to be careful. He was fully aware he couldn't go around breaking the order from his Lord without fearing the consequences. That was the reason he had done his best to stay away from Harry. Oh, he hadn't stopped watching, of course not. It was, after all, his mission, so he had to go on and, anyway, he didn't think he could stop entirely. He had become too close to the little boy to do that.

Yet, he managed to stay in the distance, watching him grow up. It wasn't a nice existence, not by any stretch of the imagination and if he hadn't been so deeply good, such a loving creature of God, he would have succeeded in feeling hate for the Dursleys. Yet, he was an angel and, as such, it was impossible for him to feel so, but it was the closest he had ever come. For years, he saw Harry being put through hell by those he called relatives to the total indifference of those around and it hurt, it hurt so badly not being able to do anything about it.

Until the night he had to show himself again.

Everything was quiet that night when Harry came of his cupboard. For once, the door hadn't been locked from outside. It happened sometimes. Harry was so silent that the Dursleys just forgot about him and then leave him able to go out as he pleased while they were asleep. Of course, Harry never did anything bad; too afraid they would realize it come morning. He didn't even dare taking food, only water from the tap at times. And he would always make sure of putting the glass, washed carefully, back in place.

This time, however, Harry wasn't looking for a glass of water. He was looking for something else, something way more dangerous. It was the dangerous property that attracted Harry to it because, today, he had realized something: he had no one. No one loved him, no one would miss him if he was gone and the Dursleys would be happier if they didn't have to look after him anymore. They had told him as much enough times.

So Harry, with all his eight years old knowledge, decided he would try to make them happy. He knew where to find detergent and he also knew it would be more than enough for what he wanted to do. Petunia had made him learn all the symbols of warning on the bottles. After all, she didn't want him to poison Dudley because he didn't know that if the liquid touched the food, it would end up badly.

He padded softly to the kitchen, being really careful not to make any noise so not to wake the Dursleys. He knew he couldn't turn on the light because it would be too dangerous, so he stayed in the dark. He didn't mind, though. He knew it was strange for a little boy of his age not to be afraid of the dark – Dudley had to have a light on in his room during the night, otherwise he just could sleep – but it had always been like this for Harry. Maybe it was because his cupboard was always dark and it was the only place he ever felt safe in?

He found the bottle he had decided to use without any problem and put it in front of him. He was sitting Indian style on the kitchen floor, looking at the blue container. He wasn't sure whether he should do it or not. It would make a mess but he thought it would be better. Everything was so confusing. He felt his heartbeat accelerate and didn't why he was so afraid. It was supposed to be peaceful after, but he really didn't know for sure what would happen and the unknown was kind of scary.

He opened the bottle hesitantly but, as he was deciding to do it, a voice stopped him.

"Don't do this, Harry," the voice said and he startled.

Thankfully, the bottle didn't drop because it would have made a hell of a mess and Harry would have been in trouble for weeks. He turned around, wanting to know the face the voice belonged to, but there was no one and it was really dark.

"Where are you?" he asked.

He didn't ask who it was because, in the bottom of his heart, he already knew. It was the presence he had felt years ago, during that freezing winter night. He just knew it. It felt just the same and it was great. He had missed it during the time he hadn't been there.

Before tonight, Harry had never been able to tell if the presence was masculine or feminine. Sometimes, he thought feminine because of the green-eyed woman but, even if the presence felt kind of the same, he knew it wasn't the case. However, he now knew it was a man because the voice was a hundred percent masculine, yet still very gentle.

A light appeared suddenly in front of Harry. Not only was it a very bright light but his eyes were used to the dark and so it took him a few seconds to be able to see once. Yet, he wasn't afraid it would wake the Dursleys. He knew the presence would never wish to hurt him and he had to know that, were the Dursleys to find Harry in the kitchen in the middle of the night, he would be hurting for a long time.

When Harry's eyes adapted to the light, he saw the man standing in front of him. He had a nice face, a gentle one, like the old man who lived a few houses down the streets and always gave Harry a few sweets when he passed by – not that Harry had told that to anyone. The man in front of him wasn't old, though. He was young, maybe thirty at the maximum, and he crouched down in front of Harry to be at the same height, yet he had had time to see he was tall enough.

"You have blue eyes," Harry blurted out because it was the first thing he noticed.

It was the exact same eyes he had seen a few years ago, falling asleep in his cupboard.

The man smiled and sat down to join Harry on the floor.

"And yours are green," he told Harry.

"I've seen your eyes before," Harry stated.

Castiel nodded. He hadn't thought the little man would remember it but it was the truth nonetheless.

"Yes, you have. I'm always there. I just stay hidden."

"Why?"

The innocence of the question was almost enough to break Castiel's heart. He wasn't used to talk to his charges when they were so young. Yet, this little boy was the most special he had ever met, in more way than one.

"Because I'm supposed to."

"Won't you get into trouble for talking to me, then?"

Harry seemed genuinely distressed by the idea and Castiel smiled.

"No, little one. This was an exception. I'm sure my Lord won't punish me for it."

"Your Lord?" Harry repeated, awed. "Are you an angel?"

It was only a whisper but full of wonders, like a little kid who had just seen Santa Claus coming down the chimney with a bag full of presents.

"Yes little one. I'm an angel. And I always watch over you. I know it's difficult, but you have to keep on living. You have a destiny."

Harry nodded, even if he didn't know what his angel meant by having a destiny. He was nothing special, after all, he was just Harry. But he was an angel; he had to know what was going to happen so he had to believe.

"I will go on living," Harry promised, meaning it.

"Good, little one. It will get better, I promise."

Castiel knew that he had done everything he could now. The rest would be up to Harry. Yet, he had full confidence that the little boy would never try to put an end to his own life again. It was time for him to go now and he got up.

Harry caught on to his intention and just before Castiel disappeared, he spoke.

"Wait! Can you tell me your name?" Harry asked, wanting to know the name of his guardian angel.

"My name is Castiel, little one," Castiel answered with a soft smile before disappearing from sight, leaving Harry alone in the dark kitchen, but with a new light in his life.


	4. Years

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** People muse about Harry**.  
****For: **crossovers100  
******Prompt:** 010. Years.**  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**010. Years.**

Years from now, when the truth about the Dursleys and their idea of magical child rearing would be revealed to those who really cared about Harry, they would all ask themselves the same question: how could Harry have grown up to be such a caring boy? How could Harry still have such a great capacity to love after living so long with people as bad as his relatives?

One of those people would be Minerva McGonagall. She had been there the night Dumbledore decided to place Harry with his only living relatives. She had watched them before, wanting to know what kind of people the little boy would live with, and she hadn't liked what she had seen. She had warned Dumbledore against putting him there that night. However, when he had refused to listen to her, she had backed down, never stopping thinking about the fate that awaited Harry there.

She had imagined what his life would be like, even though she had never imagined it to be as bad as it was in reality, and how he would come to be at Hogwarts. Knowing the Dursleys, she was imagining he wouldn't know what love was because she knew there was no way these pathetic excuses of human beings could find it in themselves to love the little wonder who had been left on their doorstep.

She was imagining Harry would be withdrawn, without any inclination for contact with others, an outsider at such an early age. She was imagining he would not understand the concept of family, what it really meant, what length you could go for those you loved as such. She would be proven wrong.

When Harry would arrive at Hogwarts, he would not be an outsider. He would do everything in his power to make friends, real friends and not just people who wanted to know him for his fame. He would be nice, polite, caring, always ready to share, whether it be money, food or information, and he would also prove he was ready to sacrifice himself for his friends, the way people did for their loved one. He would be everything she was thin king he wouldn't be and she would wonder how he was able to stay so good even though he was living with the people Dumbledore had chosen. She would never find the answer but would remain grateful to the Lord for that.

Madame Pomfrey would be the first one to discover the true extend of the abuse Harry had suffered at the hands of his relative and they weren't only psychological. There were too many scars scattered on his body, his bones had suffered many breaks throughout the years and there could be only one reason for that. It would pain her to know what the little boy had been through – and was probably still going through – but she wouldn't be able to do anything about it except report her findings to the Headmaster.

Yet, when she would talk to Harry, she would discover something so very different to what she expected from someone having been abused all his life. He wouldn't fear touch, there wouldn't be many nightmares or bed-wetting and, even more, there would be a selflessness that spoke of a great ability to love, an ability that many of those who had been through what Harry did had lost along the way. Harry would be different though and she would never know why.

Hermione Granger was an intelligent girl, the smartest witch of her generation. She knew it, of course she did, but she also knew there was lot of things you couldn't find in books, particularly when it dealt with the human minds. She did try but she knew that, sometimes, she could only fail if she did.

When she met Harry, she realized it. She would understand immediately his family was bad news, how could she not. He would never talk about them or, when he would, you would see that there was no affection between them. He would never receive any letters or gifts, he would never go home during the holidays and would try to go anywhere but there during the summer, the clothes he wore would be far too big and yet the area in which he lived would let her know that the Dursleys had more than enough money to buy him decent clothes, his glasses would be out of prescription – if they had ever been it – and, most of all, he would hide his intelligence.

Unlike Minerva McGonagall and Poppy Pomfrey though, Hermione, in the end, would know why her friend had become such a loving person. She would know because she would be the one and only person he would confide in about Castiel. He would need her help to figure out what had happened with his guardian angel. And she would always keep the secret, never telling a soul what Harry would chose to admit to her.

She would be the only one to know that the one thing that had preserved the good and the love inside Harry was the guardian angel that had looked out for him all throughout his childhood years, when he needed guidance to become the good man he would turn out to be years later.

However, all of that would only happen years from now.


	5. Christmas

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** Castiel gives Harry a Christmas present... and some hope**.  
****For: **crossovers100******  
Prompt:** 092. Christmas**.  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

**Note: **Thanks to **Dixid **who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**092. Christmas.**

Harry had always liked the night of Christmas Eve. It wasn't because he knew he would be receiving presents soon – because he knew he was going to have any – but because it was the one night in the year he was certain he could be alone. His family wasn't religious by any stretch of the imagination, and they were Anglican at any rate, but they always went to the Midnight Mass, because Petunia loved it and forced the two men of her life to go with her. So, every Christmas, they would go, no matter the weather.

So on Christmas Eve, Harry would come out of his cupboard which, for that occasion, was never locked. Harry thought it was because the Dursleys didn't want to take the risk that something like a fire might happen and if someone were to discover they had locked a child in a cupboard, there would be hell to pay. Anyway, he would come out of his cupboard, go into the living room where the Dursleys would always leave the Christmas tree lit up with electrical lamps, and sit down in front of it without bothering with other lights.

One of the nicest thing Harry could say about the Dursleys was that they knew how to make a beautiful tree, even if very traditional due to the desire to be normal, up to the little angel at the far top. It was always soothing to come out there, though, and he could stay like that for hours on ends, until he heard the car coming up the street. At that moment, he would have to go back into his cupboard and pretend he never exited.

Tonight, however, life had something in store for Harry. As the young boy was contemplating the tree, wondering what the new coming year would bring him, he saw a light illuminating the room, coming from behind him. It was a light he had seen once or twice in the past and he just had to smile.

"Hello, Castiel!" he greeted as he turned immediately to see his guardian angel standing behind him.

Castiel sat down beside Harry, a soft smile playing on his lips as he always had when talking to his young charge.

"Hello, Harry. Deep thoughts, I see."

Harry gave the angel a shy smile even as he nodded. He knew that he shouldn't feel so shy, not with someone who knew him as well as Castiel did, but it wasn't something he had any control over. The mere presence of the angel in front of him was enough to make him feel cared for, something he wasn't used to and he didn't know how to react to even when he longed for it, without wanting to admit it out loud. And the angel knowing him so well made him blush most of the time because he knew he couldn't hide his desire from him – not that he really wanted to.

"I was thinking about the future," Harry admitted.

Castiel smiled again. He had realized it was something he always did when talking to Harry or, sometimes, even just watching him. He didn't know the reason why but there was something in the little guy that almost forced him to be gentle, even more gentle than usual.

"And what do you see in your future?" Castiel asked, curious about Harry's vision of things to come.

Harry just shrugged. He didn't know what it was he could see in his future, not exactly, but he hoped it would be better than the present. He didn't have much hope, though, not for the near one at any rate but, once he was older, he knew he would be able to get away from the Dursleys and that, from then on, things would be better.

"You shouldn't worry about it all that much, Harry. Everything is going to change soon. I can promise you that, next year, at this time, you will have the best Christmas you have even known. It will get better."

"Really?" Harry asked, his voice full of wonder.

He knew he could trust Castiel because he was an angel and an angel just wouldn't lie, would he? He had to know what was going to happen, too. Castiel was being very cryptic, more cryptic than usual and it was very strange. Yet, he knew that he wasn't going to find out more.

"Yes, really," Castiel confirmed.

A silence, a comfortable one, took over before Castiel finally decided to do what he had come there for. He knew it wasn't strictly inside the rules but that it would only help him for the future of his mission.

"Harry, I have brought something for you," he said and the little boy lifted his eyes to look at him.

"A Christmas present?" he asked, stunned.

"I supposed that you could say it is. It's something very special," Castiel said, hoping it would be enough to make Harry realize how serious it was. "I would like for you to put it on and never take it off."

He presented Harry with a necklace, one whose pendant looked like it was made of crystal but so much more precious and beautiful than that. It had an ethereal quality, only reinforced by the star-shaped form, and Harry had never seen anything prettier in his life. He couldn't believe it was going to be his but he also knew that his aunt would never let him keep it.

"But Aunt Petunia is going to take it away as soon as she sees it," he told Castiel, eyes downcast by the thought of not being able to do as his angel was telling him to.

"Do not worry yourself about her, little one," Castiel reassured. "Very few people will be able to see it. It would take very special circumstances and I can assure you, your aunt won't ever know it's there. Now, let me put it on you."

Castiel took the necklace, whose chain was made of a substance that looked a bit like the white gold some of his aunt's jewelries was made of, but so much finer than anything Petunia owned. He put in around Harry's neck and closed it. The pendant glowed slightly, a very subtle white light, before settling against Harry's chest.

"Thank you," he whispered in awe at being in possession of such a magnificent piece of jewelry.

"You're welcome Harry. Now, don't forget what I told you. Everything will be alright by next year, I promise."

"I won't see you until then, will I?"

Castiel shook his head. He wasn't very happy about that either but he knew he could not afford to get too close. He already wasn't sure how his Lord would react to the present he had made Harry, a present whose origin was in Heaven, literally. Yet, he could not afford not to be able to get in contact with his charge for so long. It was only necessary and the idea of a Christmas present was a beautiful disguise. He was certain his Lord would understand.

"Have a very nice Christmas, little one."

"You too, Castiel," Harry murmured as the angel disappeared the same way he always did.


	6. Broken

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** Castiel cannot appear on his own inside Hogwarts**.  
****For: **crossovers100******  
Prompt:** 071. Broken**.  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

**Note: **Thanks to **Dixid **who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**071. Broken.**

Castiel had gone on watching Harry all year long. He had seen the eleven-year boy discover with an unprecedented awe the magical world and its differences with the one he knew, had seen him discover the real story behind his parents' death, one that he had never been able to reveal to him, even when assuring him that James and Lily Potter hadn't died in a car accident.

He had seen Harry make friends for the very first time in his life and the joy the angel had felt at seeing it had been one he had never experienced before. Harry deserved nothing more than to finally have people who cared for him and it made his heart swell to see things going so well for his young charge.

Unfortunately for the little boy, everything wasn't going as well in the end. When Harry had had to take on the troll to save Hermione, Castiel had been worried. He knew enough about the magical world to know that such creatures were dangerous and he had known, since the very beginning of course, who exactly was behind the attempt, the same person responsible for Harry's near miss on the Quidditch field.

He had longed to tell Harry the whole truth in that moment, to help him out, especially when he had seen the wizard and his friends going in the wrong direction. Snape may never have been very friendly to Harry but he had only been trying to save him and not kill him. Sadly, there was no way he could just appear like that in Hogwarts, not onto what was such an unholy ground. And Harry had yet to discover the secret of the pendant.

As soon as things had gone south, Harry had begun to call to him, looking for an answer, a reassurance, but Castiel was unable to answer as Harry hadn't done the one thing that would allow him to materialize inside the castle. So he could only watch. Helpless, as the young boy tried to do his best to face the situation, all the while wondering why his guardian angel wasn't answering his more and more desperate calls for help.

In the beginning, he could see Harry wonder about what was going on. He didn't really understand Castiel's absence in such trying moments. The first few times he hadn't answered the call, Harry had assumed that it was because the angel had other charges and had to help them. However, when time passed and there was still no sign of him, he was forced to revise his judgment.

Unfortunately, the reason his mind worked out was far from the real one and Castiel was dreading the consequences.

As he was looking for an answer, Harry was reminded of something he had learnt a long time ago, when Petunia and Vernon were talking about magic. The first thing was that it didn't exist but, the second one, was that even if it did exist, it would be a sin because magic had always been considered an heresy by Christianity, a sin against God. So, maybe that was it. The reason for Castiel's absence was that he had become something God couldn't accept and, therefore, had forced Castiel to stop watching over him because he didn't deserve his angel anymore. Or, maybe Castiel had made the decision himself. The consequences were the same, though: he was alone once again.

As Harry pronounced the words out loud in the loneliness of an unoccupied classroom, as if to make himself believe it, Castiel felt a strong pain in his heart. It hurt so much to have Harry think that of him but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't do anything to change it, not without Harry understanding the only way to let him into Hogwarts.

It was distressing him, as much as it was killing Harry slowly but, for now, there wasn't anything that could be done. Only time would tell whether the sense of betrayal could be appeased or whether Harry would never call upon Castiel again. Would the kid still believe in him after that year or would Castiel have been forsaken by Harry when it wasn't even his fault.

Castiel could only hope that, one day soon, Harry would touch the pendant because he felt that if he had to wait until Hogwarts had ended, it would be too late. And he just couldn't accept that.


	7. Fixed

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Castiel is finally able to appear to Harry. Is it too late?  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 072. Fixed  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**072. Fixed.**

Harry watched as Dumbledore left the hospital wing. He had been surprised to find the man waiting for him to wake up at his bedside but Dumbledore did like him and Harry understood that he was for some answers. Dumbledore hadn't answered every questions Harry had asked but had given him some idea of what had happened inside the Chamber and with Quirrel. Still, Harry hadn't been able to ask the one question he had wanted. Yet, he didn't need to.

Since he had woken up after his near miss with death and knowing that Castiel hadn't done anything to help him, Harry had found his answer. The fact that he was a wizard had made the angel abandon him. He couldn't believe how much it hurt to have the actual confirmation of what he had been thinking for a while now. He had thought that he would always have the angel with him and he had been proved wrong.

He felt the tears pricking at his eyes and thanked whoever was listening that he was alone at the moment. He really didn't felt like explaining to Madame Pomfrey why exactly he was crying when there was absolutely no apparent reason for it. She would think it was the fight with Quirrel and would make him talk about it, probably bring the Headmaster into it and that was the last thing he needed in that moment.

He breathed in deeply, trying to get himself under control but unable to prevent a few stray tears to run down his cheeks. He erased them angrily. He just couldn't believe he was crying over someone who had chosen to abandon him when he knew he was the one and only person he could rely on. It was so unfair.

Well, if Castiel had decided not to be bothered with him anymore, there was really no reason for Harry to continue thinking of him as a friend. And there was no reason left for him to keep his promise, not after Castiel had broken his.

In one swift moment, he brought his hand to the pendant, with the firm intention of breaking the necklace off but, in that particular moment, something happened. Something he had longed for to happen until now but that he had decided not to hope for anymore.

Castiel appeared.

And Harry's anger was renewed.

"What are you doing here? You left me! You left me alone when I needed you! You don't get to come now! As if nothing had happened. You just don't get to do that!"

"I'm sorry, Harry," Castiel answered, trying to be as calm and as poised as possible in light of Harry's anger.

He may not have deserved it but he knew that, in Harry's mind, he did. Maybe he should have explained everything earlier. Maybe he should have told Harry the property of the pendant the year before but he hadn't thought he would need to do so. Somehow, he had thought Harry would have understood on his own and that was his mistake.

"Why? Why would you leave me alone?"

Castiel closed his eyes in front of Harry's devastated one. It hurt so much to see the pain he was responsible for. Yet, he knew he had to go on with his explanation.

"I couldn't appear in Hogwarts Harry. Not without you touching the pendant."

Harry looked down at the star he was still holding in his hand, stunned to see he hadn't let go of it during his fit of anger. He then lifted his eyes to look into the angel's. He seemed so sincere and, up to now, Castiel had never lied to him, not to his face.

"Why?"

Harry was still a bit weary but calmer.

"You can let go now Harry. I need you to touch it to appear but after, I can stay without that. You will just need to touch it next time you want me to appear."

Harry left the pendant fall limply against his chest once again and looked straight at the man in front of him. He still hadn't answered the question.

"Hogwarts is too full of magic, a magic that does not belong to God. It's an unholy ground and I'm not allowed unless you can make a passage for me. I should have explained more in detail the specificity of the pendant when I gave it to you. I'm sorry I've caused you pain, little one."

Harry smiled slightly because he was now reassured. It had all been a horrible misunderstanding but it didn't mean it still didn't hurt. He had thought that Castiel hated him, had abandoned him because of his inherent magic and really, shouldn't he have?

"It's not your abilities that make you who you are, Harry. It's your choices. Remember that in the future. It will help."

"I thought you had left me," he said in a small voice, not so unlike the little boy he'd been when he had first met Castiel, so strangely different from who he had become now.

"There is nothing you can do that would cause me – or God – to abandon you, little one. Nothing."

Castiel knew that it was the case for him at least. He had become too attached to be able to do so. However, he wasn't so sure it was a good thing or not. Yet, it was the pure reality and he had to admit it. Both to Harry and to himself.

"You promise?" Harry asked, hopeful.

"I promise."

As if to reinforce his words, he took Harry's hand into his and squeezed softly. No matter how much he had talked to Harry in the past, they never really had any physical contact up to now and Harry was surprised at how warm the touch was. It was as if he was feeling the sun on his skin.

"I have to go now, Harry. Your friends are coming."

Without another word, he just disappeared as the hospital wing's door opened to let in Ron and Hermione.

"Oh Harry!" the little witch exclaimed. "Are you alright?"

"Yes Hermione," he answered with the brightest smile they had ever seen on his face. "I'm just fine."


	8. Heaven

**Title**: Touched by Angel (VIII)  
**Author**: nilitara  
**Fandom**: HP, SPN  
**Rating**: PG  
**Charaters**: Harry, Castiel  
**Summary**: Uriel has a serious talk with Castiel about the promise he made.  
**For**: crossovers100  
**Prompt**: 098. Heaven.  
**Disclaimer**: The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**098. Heaven.**

Castiel was alone in Heaven. He had watched on Harry from afar for a while but the child was now sleeping in a peaceful slumber. There was no reason for him to stay there, doing nothing but looking at his charge, when he still had other missions to accomplish. As he was meditating on what would be the best course of action for another one of his charges, he felt the familiar sensation that warned him of the arrival of another angel.

He turned slowly, not at all startled by the usual apparition, and saw Uriel. He frowned slightly as he saw that his fellow angel didn't seem to be very happy. Of course, Uriel had never been the most easy-going angel and didn't have the happiest personality but he still had to wonder about what had caused such upset to the angel.

"Uriel? What has happened?"

The other angel didn't answer immediately, he took his time to choose his words but, once he did, his voice was deep and grave.

"You're becoming too close," he informed Castiel. "What you said to Harry Potter is very serious. You cannot make that kind of promises, not in the name of our Lord, not when there is a risk he's going to go to the dark side."

"He won't!" Castiel exclaimed passionately.

And he had the most absolute certitude of this. He had seen Harry grown up, knew him better than the kid knew himself and, while Harry may doubt, at times, how good he was, Castiel didn't have any uncertainty. He didn't think it was possible for Harry to become bad, to choose to do evil. No, there was way too much love, too much purity, left in him, even after his childhood.

"You see, you're becoming too attached. You cannot afford that Castiel. You have to be neutral. Your mission was to watch Harry. I told you that the night I gave you the mission. You were never supposed to intervene, never supposed to reveal yourself to him. Our Lord has ignored your infractions up to now because they were necessary and they didn't do anything to hurt Fate. Your gift was nearly too much but it has its utility and being able to come into Hogwarts is essential so He didn't call you on it. This promise, though…"

Uriel stopped and looked at his fellow angel straight in the eyes, hoping to make him understand how serious it was. Castiel saw that and prepared himself to hear what Uriel had to say.

"Our Lord is extremely close to reassigning you, Castiel. You cannot afford to get any closer or you won't be able to act as necessary when the time come. If the time comes," Uriel amended.

He was in no case as close to Harry as Castiel was, he didn't know him as well, and then, he had never had to much faith in human beings, but for the moment he could not exactly see Harry going bad. He knew there was a possibility but it wasn't a certainty. He had to admit that Castiel was responsible for a lot of that and it would be a good thing if Harry Potter stayed true to the side of their Lord. Yet, there was no reason to force his hand, they had to respect free will, and Castiel was very close to do so.

The news of this almost reassignment was like an electroshock to Castiel. He could not believe this and neither could he believe how much he feared it would happen one day. How could this be? If it happened, if he was reassigned, he would not be able to look after Harry and he just couldn't imagine that. He knew, in that instant, that he was already too close and that there was no going back. Uriel was right on this point. That didn't mean he was right for the rest. He just couldn't get reassigned.

"It won't be necessary," he stated. "I won't make any more promise of the sort. I just wished for Harry to know that, even if I did not answer him immediately for any reason, something like what had just happened, it would not mean that I – that our Lord – stopped caring about him. He feels easily abandoned, as if he had done something wrong for that to happen, and I just wanted him to know that it was not something he should worry about so much. I wanted him to know that our Lord loved him."

Even as he was talking, Castiel knew it was only part of the reason. Of course, there was that – he wasn't lying. However, he also made that promise to Harry because he wanted to, because he wanted Harry to know that he, Castiel, would always be there for him. Not only because God had wanted him to watch over the wizard but also because he loved Harry with all his heart.

Uriel could see the truth in his companion's eyes and, while he had no reason to believe Castiel was lying, he also understood what the other angel wasn't saying. He could see how attached Castiel was to Harry and that it was way much more than he had ever seen his fellow angel be to one of his charges, even if he did tend to get more involved than he should most of the time. Yet, it was different this time. It was more than that, more than just love for a creature of God.

And, as he watched Castiel leave, going back to Earth and leave behind to peacefulness of Heaven, he could only pray that Castiel wouldn't get anymore attached and that, in the end, he would make the right choice.


	9. White

**Title**: Touched by an Angel (IX)  
**Author**: nilitara  
**Fandom**: HP, SPN  
**Rating**: PG  
**Charaters**: Harry, Castiel  
**Summary**: Down in the Chamber of Secrets, Castiel do something unexpected to help Harry.  
**For**: crossovers100  
**Prompt**: 019. White.  
**Disclaimer**: The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**019. White.**

Ginny was still alive, no matter how white and cold her skin was, and that was a relief to Harry. He didn't know what he would have told Ron if they were too late. The real question, though, was for how long? He didn't know what to do to help her. He was almost certain that destroying the manifestation of Riddle would solve everything but, before being able to do something about it, he had to get rid of the basilisk and a twenty-foot long snake with a killer glare wasn't exactly easy to kill, especially since he had to keep his eyes mostly closed or fixed on the ground.

Alone, he couldn't do anything and if he died now, what was going to happen to Ginny? To the school? Would Voldemort return for real? So he did the only thing he could think off: he touched his pendant and called for Castiel with all his might.

The angel hadn't been prepared to the onslaught of Harry's call. While he had kept an eye on the boy as the situation in Hogwarts degenerated rapidly, he also had to take care of his other charges and he had been watching over someone else, someone who was in a desperate situation and beginning to kill herself a step at a time when he heard Harry's panicked shout.

He knew it was wrong of him to abandon one charge for another but there was nothing he could really do for the woman she was watching. She was the only one who could chose to fight to live and she didn't want to. At the moment, she didn't want to and, while Castiel was sad to watch her waste away like that, there was nothing to be done.

Harry, however, had the will to live, as he had proven more than once. His will was the strongest of all and he was usually trying to find the answers to the challenges he was fighting by himself or with the help of Ron and Hermione. He never really asked for help unless he really needed to and this was why Castiel knew it had to be very bad for Harry to shout for him like that. Without a single second of hesitation, he disappeared from where he was, reappearing next to Harry who was still holding onto the pendant, all the while trying to get away from the giant snake.

Castiel wasn't certain on how to operate. He could have killed the basilisk, he did have the power to do so after all. Yet, if he did that, he was sure there would be nothing he could say to justify his intervention and he would have to leave Harry. So, he didn't do it but reflected for another few seconds before the idea came.

He couldn't kill the snake, no, but he could lessen his danger. The one thing, except he venom, that made the basilisk really frightening to Harry was its eyes, because it was that feature that allowed it to kill from a distance. If he wanted the snake to be less dangerous, he had to make it blind and, thankfully, Castiel knew exactly how to do so.

"Castiel!" Harry screamed, letting go of the pendant as soon as he saw the angel. "Do something! Please!"

He wasn't afraid for himself but for Ginny and he would never forgive himself if she died now.

Castiel nodded, yet Harry couldn't see it. He was occupied, hiding himself from the snake and trying to do something about Voldemort's shadow.

"Castiel?" Riddle repeated, a bit surprised to see the other man appear inside the Chamber, knowing that you couldn't apparate in Hogwarts. "Your friend won't save you, Potter. He will die with you."

Harry shouted at Riddle, telling him to shut up about things he didn't know anything about and Castiel took advantage of that moment of inattention from Harry to do the one thing that would burn the snake's eyes out. He showed himself in his true form.

The light was bright and white and the basilic could not resist looking. His eyes burnt, as it was the case for almost everyone and everything that looked on an angel's real form. The light didn't only draw the snake's attention but also Harry's.

The boy turned his head to look and what he saw made him gasp in astonishment. It was simply the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes upon. He hadn't known it was possible to possess such magnificence. Of course, he had known that, whenever he appeared to him, Castiel used the body of someone else, his vessel as he called him, but he had never tried to imagine what the angel looked like in reality. And, even if he had, he could never have guessed the truth. It was so ethereal; Harry felt his heart fill with such joy, such serenity, even in the middle of combat, simply by looking at him.

Slowly, as he saw that the eyes of the snake were now useless, Castiel reentered his vessel. He opened his eyes, which had been closed during the change, and looked at what he had done. It was only when he heard Harry whisper that he realized the magnitude of what had happened.

"You're so beautiful."

The voice was awed and Castiel turned to him, realizing that Harry had looked at him when he was in his true form, he had watched and yet, as he could see, the two emerald pearls sustained no damage. Harry's eyes hadn't been burnt.

He didn't have time to say anything before a shrill filled the room and the three people still standing looked up to see Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, fly in, carrying a hat. And, just like that, Harry and the snake began their battle once again while Castiel disappeared, having done what he could. Even as he made sure the kid was alright after his battle, he would not reappear to him for a while.

Because he had realized what he might have done. He hadn't thought too much about who was in the room with him, he had just cared about helping Harry. He had chosen to reveal his true form because it was the only way to help, by blinding the basilisk, but what could have happened to Harry should have stopped him. He had no way of knowing for sure the boy would not be blinded and still, he had done it. He could have taken Harry's eyes from him and the fact that he hadn't was no consolation.

Uriel had been right. He had become too attached and, in that, he had become careless. It was only a wonder that Harry hadn't paid the price. Yet, he knew that even if he should go away for a while, make sure to put some distance between Harry and himself, he couldn't.

The proof of that was, when he heard Harry call he had appeared to him even before consciously making the decision.


	10. Heart

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Faced with a horde of dementors, Harry uses a memory he didn't dare before.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 047. Heart.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**047. Heart.**

Whenever Harry was in class with Remus, the one where he was trying to learn how to make a patronus, he knew he wasn't giving his best. Oh, he had every intention of really learning how to fight dementors. He knew he simply could not afford not to, not if every single time he was in front of them, he had to relive the memory of his parents' death. Yet, even knowing that, he was still holding back.

A happy memory. That was what Remus had to him. Harry had to use a happy memory to make the patronus spell work and he wasn't very surprise to see that everyone around him thought that the happiest one he had was his learning of the existence of magic. His friends and teachers mostly knew about his family life so, really, why would they think anything else? It wasn't difficult to understand.

When that particular memory hadn't worked the way he hoped, he had tried to imagine his parents. It wasn't really a memory but it had worked quite well, if he said so himself. It hadn't permitted him to perform a corporeal patronus but it had been more than enough to go against the boggart and he had no doubt that, if a dementor was suddenly in front of him, it would be enough to prevent any loss of consciousness. He still knew it would not be enough to fight the creature.

He had gone on with this, practicing and finding a target in real life, so to speak, when Malfoy and his goons had decided to imitate the creature to destabilize him. At least, he knew he could call on a patronus whenever he wanted to but not a corporeal one, not yet.

Later, Harry would wonder how long it would have taken him to find success with the memory of his parents if what had happened hadn't. If he had just continued to train aimlessly, with the same focus, would he have been able to one day make a corporeal patronus, one strong enough to make dementors leave?

He didn't know and never would.

Everything had change the night of Sirius' big escape, when Harry had first been certain it had been his father that had saved them from the onslaught of the dementors. It was strange, his father was dead, he knew that and he was also aware that you couldn't bring back the dead. Yet, he had been so certain it had been him. Who else could it be? There was no one else that looked enough like him and there was no way it could have been him, no?

Yet, apparently, it was. The suspicion had been nagging in the back of his mind since the moment Hermione took them back in time. Yet, there were still some inconsistencies. After all, he wasn't capable of doing such a powerful patronus. Someone else, someone way stronger magically, had to have done it and who could it be except James Potter?

Yet, in the end, Harry found himself in the exact spot where he had thought he had seen his father and, when no one else arrived, when Hermione was watching helplessly from behind him as they couldn't do anything to save himself and Sirius, he realized that no one else was going to come to their rescue. That their savior had actually been himself. The question was how?

He had thought for a second that he should use his patronus but it would never be strong enough. His parents memories', as happy as they made him feel, weren't enough. He loved them, would have loved to meet them, but that would never happen and it kind of dimmed the happiness of his thoughts. Maybe that was the reason that, while it produced something, it would never be enough. Because it wasn't real and would never be and that was a sad thought.

Yet, he had to find something and, apparently, he would because, technically speaking, it had already happened once. Now, he just had to find out what the solution was and he had an idea. He wasn't sure it was a good one, wasn't sure what the consequences would be because it was something else, something he shouldn't have, not according to anyone, but it was a memory, a powerful one, magical and more ethereal that anything in his life.

Castiel.

Castiel was in his happiest memories. The mere fact he would never be alone, that the angel was always there, with him, when he needed him, that he was loved in the purest form of love, that no one on this earth could feel, always made Harry the happiest person on the planet whenever he thought about it.

He thought back about that night, the night Castiel had appeared to him for the very first time, in the form of his vessel and not only by his presence, invisible. The night Harry had realized, with all the awe of a child that he was talking to a real honest to God angel, an angel that was always looking on him. He thought back on everything he had seen in Castiel's eyes, all the love, the caring, things he had never thought anyone would feel towards him and he closed his eyes, savoring the emotions, not seeing Hermione who was looking somewhat curiously at him.

Once he was impregnated with that feeling, he took his wand out, aimed it where he wanted the patronus to appear and announced in a clear voice "Expect Patronus", never once taking his mind off that night that changed his life.

The power of the patronus was almost enough to knock him back as it left his wand. He had never expected to feel anything like this but his heart was overwhelmed by the happiness around him and he understood it was that feeling that the patronus created that the dementors couldn't stand. It was beautiful and the form it took was the one of an angel, the one of Castiel, that night in the Chamber of Secrets. It was the most beautiful thing in the world.

"What is it, Harry?" Hermione whispered, in awe not only because of the strength of the patronus, but also because of its shape.

"My guardian angel," Harry answered and, while he knew that his answer was a truthful one, he also knew Hermione would think he was just telling her that the patronus was looking after him.

Yet it didn't change that the most powerful protection, the one who made him feel the safest, was and would always be Castiel.


	11. Not enough

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry can't understand why life's so unfair. Castiel explains.  
**For: ****crossovers100****  
Prompt:** 034. Not enough.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

**034. Not enough.**

"I just don't understand," Harry stated.

He was seated, Indian-style, on his bed. It was already nighttime but he just couldn't sleep, he hadn't been able to sleep without nightmares the past few days. Everything that had happened since the moment he saw Ron's rat transform into a supposed dead friend of his parents, someone who in the end wasn't such a good friend, was too much for him.

The whole thing with Sirius and then his encounter with a bloody horde of dementors prevented him from finding sleep and he knew damn well why. It was because he couldn't understand how things could end up so badly. So there he was, trying to find answers from the one person who would always tell him the truth, always try to answer his questions, whatever they may be.

Standing in front of him, Castiel looked down, tilting his head to the side in sign of incomprehension.

"What don't you understand?" he asked, not so sure what his charge was talking about.

Harry reflected on how to proceed to explain what he wanted to know. It wasn't all that easy but he knew that Castiel would be patient enough to let him go to the end of his question.

"Sirius is innocent. Pettigrow is guilty and it's only Sirius who's paying the price. He's being punished both by the law and himself. It seems so unfair. Shouldn't God do something?"

Castiel sighed. He had known for a while that a question like that was going to come one day. He hadn't known when, or about which subject, but he had been certain that, at a moment or another, Harry would wonder about the unfairness of the world in relation to the existence of God. Of course, it was very easy to explain, but it was quite another matter to understand.

"God sees everything Harry. He knows what you have done, what you will do, what you think of doing. He knows what you're worth, what you deserve and, in the end, there will be a judgment, a fair judgment. Not in this life, but after. He will judge you on what you have done and you will have your due, everyone will, be it a punishment or a reward."

That was something Harry just had to know. He had to know that every action had its consequences even if it didn't seem to be the case at the moment it happened. It may not have repercussion in the human world but, once you left it, you are judged about everything you have done, no matter how inconsequential it seems to be.

"Yet, you get what you deserve in the afterlife, not into this one. God is powerful, yes. He could do something about it, punish the guilty and helps the others. He has the power and the knowledge. But power and knowledge are not enough, Harry."

It should have been, maybe, but it wasn't the case. Castiel knew that, he knew that only too well and sometimes, he also had the knowledge of something, the power to do something about it and yet, was unable to do so because it would be against the rules, against the very fundamental rule Christianity has based its doctrine on and it was one the rules his Lord actually respected.

"There is one thing that God will never go against, no matter what, and that's what makes life so unfair at times."

Harry blinked. He did understand most of what Castiel was talking about but what was the one thing that God refused to go against?

"What is it?"

"Free will, Harry. It's free will."

Castiel whispered the answer because it was something so powerful, something only humans were privy of and that was what made it so special. There were the only creatures of God who were allowed free will and it was the main reason some angels had been jealous and had fallen from grace. Because they weren't allowed free will when creatures they deemed beneath them were.

And against free will, all the power and knowledge wasn't enough, would never be enough, to make life fair.


	12. Cave

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry explains his faith to Sirius.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 082. Cave.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**082. Cave.**

Harry had sneaked out of the castle in the middle of the night. That was hardly what you could call a novelty; he had done it more than once previously. He had to admit, though, it was the first time he did it all alone. No Ron or Hermione this time around. Just him, Harry, going to see his godfather.

He had seen the man once or twice since the moment he'd come back to Hogwarts but it had always been with his friends and never just the two of them alone, together. Harry wanted that, just for this once. He wanted to get to know Sirius not as a friend, which was kind of the feeling he was getting when he was with Ron and Hermione, but as a godfather, as someone who he could talk to about his parents, about life, who he could ask for advice.

When he arrived, he walked slowly inside the cave because he knew that Sirius wasn't expecting him and he also knew that Buckbeak would be surprised. He couldn't take the risk of the beast' noises alerting the villagers that something was up so he had to make sure they would not react too badly.

Thankfully, he succeeded and Sirius was more than happy, if a little stunned, to see Harry in what had become his place at the moment. Apparently, Harry's willingness to break the rules reminded him of his own school years.

Sirius was in much better shape than at the end of his third year, thanks to the food Harry was either bringing him or sending him whenever he could, yet he still looked way too thin and tired, which wasn't exactly much of a surprise. He was still on the run, still had to be careful and probably haunted by nightmares just about every night.

Still, he talked with harry, told him lots of fun stories about his parents and friends before asking about his godson's life. Harry wasn't all that sure about how much he should reveal, he knew that Sirius could act before thinking so talking about the Dursley's treatment of him was out of question. He had to say something, though, so he talked about Hogwarts, about what his friends and he went through during the last three years. To say Sirius was awed was an understatement.

"Damn! And here I thought I had adventures when I was a kid. You have beaten, hands down," he exclaimed enthusiastically.

Harry blushed slightly, not very sure if it was a good think, even though Sirius seemed to think so.

"Yeah, I suppose there was quite a lot going on," Harry admitted.

They discussed for a while, until the mood slipped into a kind of morbid state. They had a hard life and while Sirius knew that he had to get himself going on, he didn't know about Harry and he wanted to. He wanted to know how come Harry could go thought all this relatively unscathed when he was certain the Dursley were hardly fitting guardian, hardly people who would look after him and cheer him up when he was down.

Harry thought for a moment. He knew what was the real answer, knew it instantly: Castiel. It had always been Castiel since the moment the angel appeared to him. He also knew he couldn't tell Sirius. He couldn't tell anyone about the angel so he had to think how to explain it. Finally, he stopped thinking and began talking.

"God. I think that, when I feel everything is wrong, I just think about God. I don't really now. I'm not very religious, in term of organized religion. I don't go to mass or things like this. I just know that there is this being out there, more powerful than anything, that look over us and help us out during the challenges of life. And I know that, at the end, He will give us all we deserve as long as we continue to live the way He wants us to. I don't think I'm explaining this right."

Harry was a bit frustrated by his apparent inability to put what he was feeling into words so he could tell Sirius, really tell him but, when he looked at the man, he saw him looking at him in wonder.

"You're explaining it very well. I'm not religious myself and I don't even know if I can believe in such an entity, not after everything, especially considering the wizarding world is not like the muggle one, we don't rely much on a God. But I think it's a beautiful way of looking at life, a beautiful thing to believe in. I don't know how you manage to hold on to it but I wish I had your faith."

And looking at his godfather, Harry realized that, maybe, he didn't do such a bad job at explaining himself because the older man seemed to have understood exactly what he was trying to say.


	13. Touch

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Castiel comforts Harry from a nightmares by doing something forbidden.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 038. Touch.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**038. Touch.**

Castiel had always watched Harry diligently, having grown to love the boy in his charge, but he had been paying way much more attention to him since the night he had come back to Privet Drive, after the disaster that had taken place at the end of the Tournament. He knew Harry, deep inside, he knew him like no one else did and no one else ever would, not even his friends or Harry himself. Therefore, he knew the boy would feel too much pain, too much sorrow, too much guilt over his friend's untimely demise to keep himself from drowning in it.

Harry was someone who felt so much love for the people around him, no matter what his relatives had taught him, that it was a joy to know him, to be the recipient of these feelings, but Castiel knew that feeling so deeply had a downside, one that other people, who were less caring, couldn't imagine. Castiel knew Harry would be experimenting it soon enough. The last few days at Hogwarts had been difficult to live, but he had never been really alone there, his friends always around, making sure he knew it wasn't his fault, watching over him in a way different, yet similar, to Castiel's, with Harry's awareness of them on another level.

Castiel hadn't been needed on an essential level back then. Harry hadn't had to activate the pendant so that Castiel could come to him, so the angel had stayed in the background, waiting for the young wizard to feel a pain too difficult to handle on his own, without his help. He hated knowing it would come, hated to have to see Harry hurting so strongly, but he knew there would be no escaping it.

The night Harry had arrived at Privet Drive, though, was the night the nightmares started to show with a vengeance. They were violent, very violent, often a replay, blow by blow, of the scene Castiel had assisted to where he had watched Harry fight against his enemy. It had taken all of his will power not to intervene but he had known he had no choice, he wasn't authorized to. He had kept himself from acting and still had seen Harry come back in one piece, damaged only on a psychological level but not dead and that was the most important to him because death was the one thing he could not heal.

He would never have thought that it would be more difficult to watch over Harry as he was safe back into his home, where Voldemort couldn't dream of targeting him but yet, it was. Seeing the child in distress every night, waking up either screaming or crying, Cedric's name always on his lips, was one of the hardest thing Castiel had to live through and he had lived through a lot.

Every whimper was a knife to his heart, every sniffle had him stifle his own cry, it was all he could do to prevent himself from crossing the line, from acting and taking away the pain. Yet he couldn't. sometimes, he would appear to Harry in the middle of the night, while the Dursleys were sleeping peacefully – they who did not deserve it – when Harry was awake and wondering what was going to happen to him now.

Their discussion had evolved. They weren't on the same level as the ones they used to have when Harry was a mere child. Now that the last piece of his innocence had been stolen away by life itself in a cemetery – an irony that Castiel shouldn't judge – he had other questions for his guardian angel, other subjects he wanted to explore, other needs that should be met. He wasn't the same boy who had last been in this room.

However, Castiel's interventions couldn't go any further; they shouldn't even exist as it was. Yet, with every nightmare, the temptation was growing stronger. He had difficulty standing it, it was hurting him, almost as badly as it was hurting his charge and he couldn't understand that kind of pain. Never before had he felt so much, so deeply for one of his protégés. But Harry, as had Uriel said all these years ago even if he hadn't meant it like that, was special.

Sometimes, Castiel would wake Harry himself, when he saw the nightmares too deep for the boy to tear himself away on his own. There were times when he would just sit down on the bed, or the desk, and just listen to Harry telling him all about it, all he saw, the scenarios his mind had come up with to torture him some more.

Tonight was different thought. Tonight, he had seen the nightmares appearing to be more violent than usual, appearing to be hurting Harry more strongly and he could feel in the boy the longing to wake up from it, yet he was trapped and even Castiel trying to wake him up, the same way he usually did, was of no help. And when the thrashing became fiercer, Castiel felt his heart cave in.

He knew he shouldn't do what he was about to, knew that that kind of contact was strictly forbidden. Yet, he couldn't seem to care and he still acted. Because, for Harry, he had already defied orders more than once, even His, like Uriel had told him.

Slowly, he leaned down, mere millimeters away from Harry's sleeping face and, chastely, brushed his lips against the boy's. The effect was instantaneous. Harry's body stilled, all the tension that was radiating from him only an instant before vanished and a peaceful smile graced his lips as he sighed softly. It was the reaction Castiel was expecting because he knew exactly what a human kissed by an angel would see: Heaven.

However, humans still on Earth, who had not yet been taken by Death, weren't supposed to know what Heaven looked like. And this was the reason such a contact, no matter how insignificant it seemed, was forbidden for an angel.

Almost as soon as Castiel drew back, he fell the insistent pull from his Lord and knew that his transgression had been noticed and judged. He had crossed a line and was going to be punished, he could feel it in the calling from his Lord, in every single particle of his being and yet, looking at Harry's peaceful features, he couldn't bring himself to regret it.

At least, he had granted his charge a night of dreams instead of nightmares and, maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to get him through the summer. At least, he could hope.


	14. Too much

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Castiel in given his punishment.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 033. Too much.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**033. Too much.**

As Castiel made his way back to Heaven, he already knew what the meeting with his Lord would bring. He knew exactly the reason he had been called and how the conversation would end. He was reluctant to go, wanting to delay the inevitable just a little bit longer, but it would only anger his Lord further and it was the very last thing he wanted. His Lord was everything to him or, at least, he was supposed to be.

Yet, it was something he had been beginning to doubt. In the last few years, he had begun to want to put Harry first and his Lord second and it was something he had proved a few moments ago, when he committed the transgression of kissing the soft lips of his sleeping charge, wanting to soothe the nightmares he was stuck in at any cost.

This was the very reason he was commanded back to Heaven. An angel could not be allowed to place anything about his Lord and he had done it. That transgression was going to be punished and the only thing he could do about it was hope he would not fall from grace, that his Lord would be merciful.

He didn't have to wonder for very long for, as soon as he arrived, he received audience and was soon facing his Lord. He was ready to beg for mercy but knew inside his heart and soul it would do no good. His Lord was good, He was loving, but his decisions always went without appeal and angels didn't have the liberty of free will. They could not discuss any order or decision and whatever his Lord chose as a suitable punishment for his deed would be carried out without a single moment of deliberation.

He listened as his Lord talked, his mind clouded by the fear of the answer to the question he had been asking himself but knowing he could not avoid it. He listened as the Lord dressed a list of his offenses. His latest to date had been the one to tip the balance, the one that forced his Lord to carry a punishment, but it was by far not the first time Castiel had done something against his mission's orders to help out Harry. It was the only one that was unforgivable.

His Lord would forgive him, though, because such was his nature. It didn't mean the action would go unpunished. Castiel had to atone for his sin, but he knew it would not make the Lord's love toward him diminish. He would just be unable to do whatever he wanted to anymore. There was one restriction, and one only, but this restriction was almost enough to break Castiel's heart.

It hurt, it hurt so much, but he kept his mouth shut and only nodded in deference and acceptance, showing he accepted judgment and punishment both. It would be hard, it would be hell for quite a while but, in the end, he had no choice and could only pray the pain would diminish with time, even though he doubted it.

He bowed his head, waiting for his Lord to dismiss him and, after only a few more moments, he did. Castiel was about to leave to go back to his duties when the Lord called him back and, in a final act of mercy, granted him the permission for something he thought impossible. It was not an annulment of the sentence, but it was enough to ease the sting just a bit.

He was granted a wish, a wish he hadn't even realized he had, and while it was nice and merciful, it was also the most heartbreaking thing in his long life. And as Castiel went back to Privet Drive for the very last time, his punishment echoed in his mind.

"_Your punishment, Castiel, will be a formal interdiction to ever see Harry James Potter again until the day he dies."_


	15. Rain

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Castiel look at Harry one last time.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 066. Rain.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**066. Rain.**

It was raining, Castiel reflected distantly as he stood from his watching spot, on one of the house's rooftop. That summer was the hottest and driest people had seen in longer they could remember but, that day, it was raining.

It was kind of fitting, really. It suited his mood. Not only that, but he had always distantly linked the rain and Harry together.

He remembered all the times it had rained when Harry had been a kid. The Dursleys would never have left Dudley walk about in the rain, too worried he would get sick. Harry, though, they hadn't cared much about. So he always had had to go back home on foot. Most kid would have hated it but Castiel knew Harry had simply loved it.

For Harry, it had meant freedom. He had been alone on the way, with no one to bother him. Usually, Dudley would have made the moment he had walked home hell, playing Harry-hunting with his friends. When it rained, though, Harry would be alone in the streets and able to enjoy the calm. He would be carefree for the little while it had taken him to get home. He would either walk or run – usually walk, so it would take more time – and play in the water.

It was these moments Castiel had enjoyed watching the most during Harry's childhood, the moments where he could be himself without anyone annoying him, or making him shut up or making sure he was as miserable as possible. It was in these moments he could see who Harry really was and he had enjoyed it.

Growing up, Harry had kept the habit of going out whenever it rained. He wasn't bothered too much by the other kids now, mostly because Dudley had become a bit afraid of what Harry was capable of and his friends followed his leads, but he still liked being out in the rain the most. Castiel supposed it had somehow become a security blanket, making him feel like nothing could happen to him when it was raining. He had never asked Harry before and no, he would never be able to. It would remain a mystery forever.

Today was no different. Harry had gone out as he always did. Castiel was watching him from afar. It was the very last time he could do so. His Lord had been merciful enough to let him go and watch his charge – or former charge as the case may – one last time before leaving him behind for the rest of his life. Castiel was grateful for it. He hadn't wanted his last memory of Harry to be the one in the throes of a nightmares.

He had wanted to see Harry up an about, enjoying himself or just _being_. Today was a good example of it. Harry wasn't playing around, no, because he was a bit too old for it by now and after everything that had happened at the end of the year, Castiel knew Harry didn't exactly feel like it anyway. Yet, he wasn't depressed either, merely contemplative.

The young wizard was in the playground where he always went now and Castiel could see him very well from his hiding place. He had made himself invisible in the eyes of humans, making sure he was not bothered by anyone, and was watching Harry intently, as if committing the image in his memory for the rest of eternity. Because he knew that no matter how long he lived – and it would be a very long time – he would never be able to forget these bright green eyes.

Harry was sitting on a swing, balancing distractedly back and forth, his eyes lost in the distance. Castiel knew Harry was doing this to escape reality, he always did it lately. Being on a swing was the closest he could get to flying when he was in the muggle world and it had always been his way of coping with life, since he discovered magic.

The raindrops were falling from the sky, soaking his clothes and his face, leaving his glasses totally obscured but he couldn't care less. It didn't matter any way. It wasn't as if Harry needed to see something special. From his place, Castiel could see that none of this bothered Harry and he let a small smile grace his lips.

Yet, he was sad, sadder then he could ever remember being. At least his last image of Harry would be this beautiful one, this one of peace, of being outside and in his own little world all at once, not lost into a never-ending nightmare. It was hard to decide to go but he knew he only had a few minutes left. He couldn't stay long, didn't have the choice. It was his punishment.

And, as Castiel looked upon his charge for the last time, he just couldn't say whether the wetness of his face was from the rain and from his own tears.


	16. Colorless

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Castiel has disappeared and Harry muses on it.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 020. Colorless  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**020. Colorless.**

The end of the summer couldn't arrive soon enough for Harry's taste. He was still stuck at Privet Drive for the moment being, though he already knew he would be somewhere else soon. He wasn't sure where exactly but, after the dementors' attack, there was no way he would be staying there. The Headmaster had already written to him, telling him someone was going to come and get him. He just had to sit tight.

Still, it didn't make it any better. Well, that's not true. It did make it slightly better in the sense that getting away from the Dursleys would always be a good thing. Still, it wasn't enough. No, this summer had been hell up to now and he just didn't see that changing anytime soon.

It wouldn't have been as bad as that normally. It would have been bad, yes, because of what had happened but he would have been okay with Castiel to speak with, Castiel who would help him endure his family until such a time he could get away from them. But that wasn't to be this summer.

The angel had been there in the beginning. It had been alright. Castiel had reassured him, telling him that Cedric's death was in no way his fault. He knew it intellectually, of course, but he still couldn't help feeling guilty. He was certain that if he hadn't asked the young man to take that cup with him, he would still be alive now. Yet, they all made their own choices that night and the only ones to blame were Voldemort, Pettigrow and Crouch Junior. Now, he just had to convince his heart of it and, apparently, he would have to do it all alone.

He had tried to call out to Castiel when he had woken up from the single most marvelous dream he had ever had. It had been a dream full of peace, of beauty, of everything he had always associated with Heaven and he knew, deep inside down, that Castiel had been responsible for it because there was no way he would have been able to dream up a place like this on his own.

He had wanted to thank the angel for whatever it was that he had done to chase the nightmares away that night but Castiel had never answered his calls, no matter how numerous they had been. He had tried again and again for day before he had resigned himself that Castiel wouldn't come.

The last time such a thing had happened, he had thought that Castiel had decided to abandon him and he couldn't have been more wrong. He had been naïve, then, innocent and so bloody childish to believe something like that that he had promised himself he would never make the same mistake again.

He knew what Castiel felt for him, knew how much love the angel felt towards him and, if Castiel didn't come to him, he was never going to believe it was of his own free will. Castiel was prevented from coming but he couldn't be sure by whom or what. Yet, whatever, whoever, it was, was someone or something very powerful to prevent an angel from doing whatever he wanted to. However, it was the only explanation possible and Harry could only hope the situation wouldn't last. Of course, he very much doubted it.

Something must have happened during the night Castiel had soothed his nightmares and he couldn't shake off the feeling that the two instance were relied. He wasn't sure how yet and that was the one reason he was very impatient to go back to Hogwarts. He could only hope he would find something in the library that would help him sort it out. Maybe he would find his answer. Just maybe, he would have that much luck.

In the meantime, he didn't have any choice. He was slowly beginning to gather his things, knowing he would leave the house soon enough, resigning himself to spend the rest of the summer in complete ignorance of what had happened to his dear friend.

It hurt. It hurt and worried him so damn much because he realized now the importance that the angel had taken in his life. He had always been his anchor and, now that Castiel wasn't there anymore, it was as if the world had changed. It was as if something had taken everything good in the world and thrown it away. Castiel had always helped him to see the beauty in this world and, now, without him, the only thing Harry could see was a colorless horizon.


	17. Friends

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry confides in Hermione and Luna to find out what happened to Castiel.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 021. Friends  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**021. Friends.**

Once Hogwarts began again, more difficult than the year before with all the rumors about him, the rumors and Umbridge, the new Defense teacher, Harry began his search for an answer. He began to spend more and more time in the library to Ron's utter confusion and Harry's explanation wasn't all that good to begin with. Hermione seemed happy with that new development tough, if a little surprised.

Yet, he wasn't having much success. There were simply way too many books and no way of finding what he wanted. He just wasn't used to it and he needed help. He knew he had to be careful about whom he would talk to and, while he wanted to share everything with Ron, the redhead would never understand. The wizarding world was simply not the right place to talk about theology, God and the like. Thankfully, Hermione, her, grew up in the muggle world like him.

He cornered her one night before she could go to sleep. He made sure to tell her to come back once everyone was sound asleep so they could talk. He told her he needed her help with something that had to stay a total secret. She couldn't tell anyone, not even Ron. Needless to say, she was surprised but she agreed. Of course, she had been telling Harry for years he could talk to her whenever he needed someone. She wasn't going to tell him no once he finally took her up on her offer.

That was how they found themselves alone in the common room at one in the morning.

"So, Harry, what did you want to tell me?" She asked, curious.

Harry decided that the best way to get her up to speed was to explain everything from start. He told her all about Castiel, how they met, how the angel had always been there for him in the past and she let him. She seemed disbelieving at first but, the more he talked, the more she realized that it all made sense. He was telling the true and a lot of things she had been wondering about Harry's life were explained by the continuous presence of his guardian angel at his side.

"The problem, Hermione, is that something happened this summer. I mean, there was this dream…. It was so strange."

"Was it bad?" she asked, knowing he was often subject to nightmares and visions.

Harry shook his head.

"No. It was… wonderful. It's the only world to describe it. I mean, it began as a nightmare but I can't really remember the details. All I know is, in the middle of it, it changed totally. There was this beautiful place. I don't even know how to describe it. It was… Heaven, literally I think. I don't know how I could ever have imagined something so beautiful myself."

"Maybe it was," Hermione said. "Maybe Castiel did something to you, something to show you Heaven. So you could get out of your nightmare. You didn't ask him?"

"That's just the thing. Since I've had this dream, I've never seen him again. I called him, called him so many times. And I know he would never ignore me so…"

Hermione nodded. She could understand what he was thinking and she was kind of agreeing with his assessment of the situation. Whatever Castiel did, he couldn't see Harry anymore.

"You think he was punished for doing this."

Harry nodded.

"Do you think it's possible?"

"It seems so, yes. But I can't say for sure. I'm sure there must be something about it in the library that could say whether it's likely to be the true or not. That's why you spend so much time there lately. You were looking for an answer," she continued, talking more to herself than Harry. "Yes, it's logical. Now why don't we go to bed? I will try to find something tomorrow, alright Harry."

He nodded and got up, intending to go to his dormitory when she called him back.

"Thank you for trusting me."

He smiled to her, letting it convey the message that he would always trust her and then went to sleep, more at ease than since the beginning of the term. He knew that if someone could find the information he needed, it would be Hermione.

She didn't let him down. Like promised, Hermione went to search for an answer and was way more successful than he had been. Unfortunately, the punishment was looking like the most likely solution and now Harry couldn't help feeling not only guilty but also worried. What kind of punishment would Castiel have received?

He was wandering through the hallways, reflecting on it, worry etched on his face, when he heard a dreamy voice.

"There is a way you know, Harry."

The young wizard turned round to face Luna Lovegood, the young witch he had met on the train. She seemed more present than before but there was still an ethereal look about her.

"Know what?"

"What happened to your friend," she said, pointing to the pendant he was still wearing, pendant that no one else had ever been able to see since the day he put in on.

Yet Luna had always seemed to evolve outside of this world so maybe that was the reason she could see it. Because she wasn't bound by the same law than everyone else. He didn't need to know how she was aware of Castiel, though; all he wanted was to know the way he could learn what had happened.

"How?"

"There is a ritual that you can use. You won't be able to talk to the one you look for but you can talk to another angel if you summon them. It's in a very ancient book, a book you won't find in the library but that will come to you in the room where everything can be found."

Before he was able to ask more, she disappeared and did not talk about that subject anymore, no matter how many times he asked her. He had almost lost all hope to find his answer until the moment Dobby showed him the Room of Requirement and Luna's message become clear.

The first time he entered the room alone, intending to find his answer, the book she had been talking about appeared and he immerged himself into the scriptures, not losing any time before beginning the ritual.

Yet, maybe he would have been better off not knowing because at least there was still the shadow of a hope. However, once the angel Uriel appeared to him, summoned by the ritual – and not really happy about it – he was told of Castiel's punishment, Castiel's interdiction to watch or interact with him until the day he died.

Blinking back tears of sadness, Harry thanked Uriel for the information, not able to conceal the relief he felt that Castiel's punishment hadn't been worse. Seeing this human boy relieved to have such a heart wrenching new announced to him because he was thinking about the angel first, about how it could have been worse for Castiel, Uriel finally realized what his fellow angel had tried to tell him all along.

Yes, Harry James Potter was unique.


	18. Spade

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry and friends go digging into the darkest tome to find a way to kill Voldemort for good. What do they find?  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 050. Spade  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**050. Spade.**

Maybe in another world, Harry would have been able to follow Dumbledore's instruction to the letter, staying within the realm of what the Order should do and not dwell on any other kind of magic and enchantments. Maybe, in another world, he would never have thought to go any further than what Hogwarts had taught him but not in this world.

Castiel had made him see things he would never ever have had a chance to understand without him. He had let him see that the magical world didn't have everything right and that there were more things in on this earth, in Heaven and Hell, everywhere, that the Hogwarts' curriculum had taught them. He couldn't afford to forget everything the angel had taught him, no matter how long it had been since he had last seen him.

And it had been a while. Two years now. Two years without being able to talk to the one person he had always been able to confide in. It had been hell for a while, until he got Hermione and Luna as real confidents. He still told things to Ron, of course the redhead was still one of his best friends, but there were things he just couldn't understand. It wasn't against Ron; it was just the way he had been brought up.

Hermione and Luna, though, were more open to the possibilities. Hermione because she, like him, had grown up in the muggle world and knew there was more than what the majority of the wizarding world saw – mainly technology but also religion. Luna because there was no limit to her imagination. She would go on and on about creatures none of them were sure existed but it was a real asset because, sometimes, even if everyone thought it to be a legend, it was real and with Luna, they knew all about the legend

So at the end of the year, when Dumbledore died, Harry didn't immediately decide to go after the horcruxes. Oh, he knew he would have to but there was something else he had to do either before or afterwards – though he would prefer before. He had to find a way to kill Voldemort but not only that. He had to find a way to make sure he could never ever be brought back, no matter in which form. Destroying all his horcruxes was one thing, but there was quite a lot he didn't know about magic and who knew if someone wouldn't be able to bring him back? It was an incertitude they couldn't afford.

They had reunited at Grimmauld Place, Luna, Hermione and he. They knew they shouldn't be there. Actually, they should have been at the Burrow at the moment, waiting for the wedding ceremony to begin, but they had to look for an answer and it was the only moment they could be together all three of them without any attention, especially since Grimmauld Place had been condemned as not sure as Snape had revealed himself to be on Voldemort's side after all.

They had looked through the Black's library, some of the darkest tomes ever made in the wizarding world. None of them were very happy about it but it was a necessity and they had to know how to defeat the Dark Lord. Harry had faith, though. He knew they would fall prey to the dark.

Luna was simply too detached from the reality to be sucked in and Hermione lacked a natural aptitude with the dark. Harry could have been tempted if it wasn't for the pendant he was wearing. Not only it made it difficult for him to feel at ease with the dark, but he would also be unable to bear its presence if his soul was corrupted. So, at the earliest sign of discomfort from the pendant, he would retreat and let the first look by themselves.

After hours and hours or searching, it was Hermione who found something, something that made all their blood run cold as they read it.

"Harry! I found something. I found a way to make sure there is no way he could ever be reborn."

It seemed like a fantastic new and Harry would have thought Hermione would be over the moon at such a discovery but she seemed more scared than anything and it made him frown.

"Hermione?" Harry asked.

It was Luna who answered him once she saw what Hermione was looking at.

"It's a dangerous path to set on Harry, but I'm sure you will be able to walk it without losing yourself. If anyone has the strength of mind to do so, it's you."

"What path?" Harry asked, becoming more worried with his friend's cryptic message.

"There is a device, Harry," Hermione began. "Well, it's more a weapon, really, that you can use to kill Voldemort and ensure he's never coming back. The weapon in itself wouldn't be very dangerous for the user but… you have to go and get it first."

Harry already knew inside his heart that he had no choice but to do it. It was the only way to end that madness once and for good. He didn't care what he had to go through to get this weapon. He was strong enough, he had the willpower and he knew that God would help. Even if he didn't have his guardian angel to watch over him anymore, God would help because it was his choice and it was the right one.

"Where from?" he asked, mentally bracing himself for the answer.

"Hell," Hermione said in whisper, her horrified eyes locking with Harry's.


	19. Hell

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry goes to hell and back. Literally.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 99. Hell  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**099. Hell**

As Harry walked through the fire and brimstone, hearing the inhuman cries that echoed, so overwhelming it seemed to come from the depth of his own mind, he thought back at what he had to do to come here.

He still couldn't process everything that had happened in the space of only a few days. It was as if he had been living in a daze ever since that horrifying revelation from Hermione about the weapon he needed. Hell. He literally needed to walk into hell to retrieve the one and only object that would ensure Voldemort's ultimate demise.

At first, he hadn't known how to react. Hermione was shocked beyond belief and he, himself, wasn't much better. Only Luna seemed to take the revelation in stride, her quite assurance that Harry would be able to do it the only certitude in all that mess. She had been their rock and, without her, he didn't think he would have actually set out to do it. He would probably have gone into the battle after destroying the horcruxes and hoped that no one would be stupid enough to try and bring a madman back.

However Luna had been there and she had ensured they looked for a solution to get Harry into hell and back without being killed or worse. Harry hadn't been sure at what worse entailed but, now he was there, he could see that death would probably have been one of the sweetest fates.

They had finally found a way to help Harry walk among the demons without being attacked or prevented from coming back and it had almost been too much for the three of them. Even Luna had seemed troubled but she had quickly recovered, still rambling on Harry having more than enough willpower.

A necromancy ritual.

Harry knew about necromancy. Not a lot but more than enough to know it was the worst kind of magic. Not only black magic – that could be used for good by the right people – but Death magic. The ritual didn't involve killing, and he could thank God for that, but it was one of the darkest ritual ever known because it destroyed the soul of anyone touched by darkness. Harry had balked at that.

"I can't use that spell. I have darkness in me. Everyone has."

It was a statement. Harry knew everyone had some darkness in them. There cannot be any good if there is not bad. You cannot choose to do the right thing if you don't have the capacity to do the wrong one.

"Not the same kind of darkness, Harry," Luna stated. "Not the kind that can consume you. Not the kind that can take over. You wouldn't be able to bear your pendant if you had the slightest bit of real darkness in you. You could never have seen Castiel."

It should have scared him how much she knew about him that he never actually told her. Yet it didn't because she was Luna and he was used to her knowing things like these, things that no one else would ever know.

Yet, in the end, they had decided that Harry had to take the risk and there he was, walking inside Hell, demons looking at him but fearing to approach him because of the bubble of magic that surrounded him.

He could feel bile rising in his throat at what he was seeing. The demons were one things but the lost souls that were being tortured was another. How could anyone stand this? This eternal damnation would be forever graved into his mind and he knew that no matter what, he could never forget.

As he was beginning to think he would pass out, or vomit, or just plain run back, he felt his pendant emit a sweet warmth, something it hadn't done in so very long he almost let out a cry. Almost.

He reached for it and saw the glow enveloping it. He never thought it could do that without Castiel in proximity and it allowed him to hope the angel was thinking about him, knew about this trip and the magic he had used and still loved him. He smiled, something he hadn't thought possible in that place and other seemed to be afraid by Harry apparent happiness. Still, he wondered how it was possible to still feel this pureness while surrounded by the worst scum of the universe, enveloped in a bubble of magic so dark not even Lucifer would have dared approach him?


	20. Choice

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry is at King Cross and has to make a choice.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 087. Choice  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**087. Choice.**

The choice was easier than he thought it would have been.

The moment Harry found himself waking up at King Cross station after being hit, once again, by the killing curse, he really thought it would be the end. After all, he had to be killed for Voldemort to die – he knew that – and he could only hope that whoever killed Voldemort afterwards would use the device he had literally gone to hell and back to find. Yet, he was certain it wouldn't be him who would use it. Death was the end.

Except that, apparently, it wasn't. When Dumbledore appeared to him, he asked the questions he had always wanted and, for once, the old man answered without letting anything out. It was very nice to see him again. Harry had missed his mentor, no matter how many misguided things he had done. It wasn't as if he had made mistakes on purpose and Harry knew that, without him, he would have been lost. He had given so much for the good of the wizarding world, it was a shame he had died before seeing the end of the war.

Yet, Dumbledore was a very old man, Harry knew that. It was better for him this way. He could finally rest in peace because, no doubt had he been still alive, he would have had to live up once again to the expectations of the wizarding world and they expected quite a lot from the great Albus Dumbledore.

He had thought it was the end for him too but, before long, Dumbledore told him exactly where he was at the moment. The crossroad, the place where he had to make his choice.

Going on in the afterlife or going back to the battlefield.

One may have thought it would be a hard choice. The choice between really dying or going back to a war where he could die within the hour. It should have been difficult, he should have been hesitating, but there was no moment of doubt in his mind.

It was the easiest choice ever.

He wanted to go back and finish what he had begun. He wanted to go back for all of his friends who were still counting on him, friends he had not told of his suicidal mission before setting on it because he had known they would have tried to prevent him from going. If he could spare them the pain of seeing him dead, of mourning him, burying him, he had to. If he could save their life in the process, he had to. It was the only way.

But that wasn't what made the choice so very easy. No, what made his decision so obvious was Castiel, his guardian angel. He may never see him again, he may never have any contact with him again, but the one thing the angel had taught him above everything was to live.

He had to live for Castiel, for the one who transgressed every rule to make sure he stayed alive and happy. Giving up now would mean betraying him in the worst way possible. He knew that awaited him on the other side, he knew the wonder he would see, he would live in, should he chose to go on in the afterlife, he had seen it all and it was so very tempting but he just couldn't do it.

He couldn't betray Castiel. He couldn't let his friends die on the battlefield without trying to help. There was only one option left it he wanted to protect them.

He just had to finish the fight now. Of course, it would be easy. All the horcruxes had been destroyed, Voldemort thought he had killed him which meant that he now had the effect of surprise on his side, and he had in his possession the object he needed to ensure Voldemort's ultimate demise would stick. Before the end of the night, Harry knew that the reign of terror of the Dark Lord would reach its end.

And with that very thought in mind, Harry smiled and turned to Dumbledore, telling him his decision.

"I'm going back."


	21. Dreams

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry dreams of two brothers and looks for answers.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 097. Dreams  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**097. Dreams.**

Harry realized he was dreaming. It was unexpected. He usually could never tell when he was in dreamland that what he was seeing wasn't real, but it seemed so clear this time around. He seemed to be only a spectator to the events that were unfolding before him and the ethereal feel of the place could only be real in his sleep, not in the waken world.

At the beginning, he wasn't all that sure what it was he was dreaming about. There were people, mainly two young people. Well, they were older than him, he would have put them in their late twenties. He had never seen them real but they seemed to be real people, not the way some characters you dreamed up sounded. It was as if he could watch over them while they lived their real life.

And what a life it was. From what he could him from the conversation they had and see what was around, like the weapons and holy water, things that made him think they both knew all about the supernatural but not in the same way the wizarding world did, it seemed that they lived as far as possible from a normal life.

But who were they exactly? And why the hell was he dreaming about them?

Unfortunately, the dream ended up abruptly when he was woken up by his friends who had decided to spend the day with him. He was still in touch with Hermione and Ron, even though the war and school had ended, their friendship never would. She was now on the way to becoming Mrs. Hermione Weasley and Harry couldn't have been happier for his two friends.

When he found himself alone with Hermione, he told her about the dream the way he now told her about everything. She didn't have an explanation at the moment but promised to research it. She was good at that. She would try to find something about the phenomenon but also about the two men and what they were doing with their arsenal.

The days that followed were punctuated by dreams, the same ones. Well, not exactly. The same kind of dreams, about them: Sam and Dean. He had heard their first names here and there but never their last. They didn't use it. They were brother and he discovered that they went after supernatural beasts and creatures, mostly to kill them. Harry understood though. They always went after them after reading about suspect deaths in the papers so they only did chase the ones who hurt people. A good thing, otherwise Harry would have had to stop them and he really didn't want to have to.

Harry and Hermione didn't find anything about these two guys in particular but what they found was about hunters in general. To say they were stunned was a gross understatement. They were so used to anyone in the non-magical world to resolutely ignore everything about the supernatural that finding out some muggles took upon them to chase after the worst scum the supernatural world had to offer surprised them.

It also scared them because who knew if some innocents creatures had been hunted and killed because of that? Sam and Dean seemed to only chase after those who killed but nothing indicated that it was the same for everyone and Harry couldn't help feeling uneasy. The magical world was already prejudiced against creatures they knew all about but for those who saw them as only existing in their nightmares, who had no idea of the wonders of the magical world, what could they see?

Yet that wasn't the most important at the time. Harry still couldn't understand why he was having those dreams. Or, maybe, he should talk about visions? Because they weren't only fantasy he had dreamed up, of that he was sure. Deep inside him, he knew Dean and Sam existed. He knew that what he had seen up to that point was only the truth. Yet, all the vision he had ever had in the past had always concerned Voldemort so why was he having those?

It couldn't be Voldemort returning. There was no chance of that. He had done everything to ensure it would never be possible.

The answer came to him a few days later, after quite a few more dreams during which he had to worry about the brothers' safety. He couldn't understand why he would be worried about people he didn't even know but he had followed so much of their life during his sleep he felt as if he actually knew them and had gotten attached. His heart would lose him one day, he knew it.

However, that night, everything became clear. Everything became obvious because he saw one more person in his dreams. One person he had longed for years to see again, one person he had never thought he would see again: Castiel.

From that moment on, what Harry had to do with his life became clear: he would follow the path of a hunter.


	22. Sixth Sense

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry has visions of Castiel and realizes the deeper meaning.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 035. Sixth Sense  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**035. Sixth Sense.**

It had already been a few weeks since Harry had decided to leave England to become a hunter. He had chosen America, more precisely the States, to exercise his new 'profession' and it hadn't been a lucky choice. No, he had chosen it because he knew it was where Sam and dean were and that, if he could find them, he would also find Castiel. That was the one thing that mattered to him. The angel was the reason he had decided to leave behind that quiet life he had once dreamed for and found to be once again thrown into the middle of a battle.

At least, this time, it was his choice.

Of course, it wouldn't have been him if things had gone smoothly. No, they changed once again when he came to the States. No longer did he dream about Sam and Dean, so he could sleep normally once again, but something else appeared. It was full-fledged vision in the waken world this time. Suddenly, in the middle of something, he would see flashes.

There was only one common them to these vision: Castiel. No matter what the images represented, it always came back to the angel, to what he was doing. Of course, it meant there was the two brothers once again, but it wasn't centered on them anymore. He was beginning to learn more about Castiel's life that he had ever known when they had been together. It was strange, he should have felt like he was invading the angel's privacy, and he knew only too well how unnerving it was for someone to know things about yourself you had never told them, yet it just felt right.

He couldn't help but wonder why he was having these vision, though. It wasn't as if he had ever had anyone sending them. When he had had vision of Voldemort, he knew the reason behind it. It had been the link created by the scar and intensified by the presence of the horcrux inside of him. Yet, now, he couldn't see the reason.

Would God send him those? It was a distinct possibility, he knew it, yet he very much doubted it. He had never had an inkling that God would do it and, even so, why would He be sending him visions of Castiel in the first place? It wasn't as if He wanted them to be reunited; the punishment Castiel received proved it.

Something about this reasoning made him frown, sitting down of his motel room. He thought back about the day he had learnt of Castiel's punishment. When he had called on Uriel, he had been told what it had been and had known that Castiel could never see him again. He had known that all along. Except.

_He cannot see you until the day you die._

That was what Uriel had told him. Castiel wasn't allowed to see him until the day he died. Technically, that day had already come and gone. He had died. Would God consider the punishment ended? Was that the reason he was having those vision? To make him understand he could see Castiel again? It was possible.

He decided it was time to let his heart guide his actions. He had been prepared to find Castiel, just to see him from afar, even if the angel couldn't stay with him, when he had thought the punishment still in place. Now that he realized it was very probable they were allowed to be near each other once again, he just couldn't bear to abandon hope.

For the first time in so very long, he let himself believe he could find Castiel and be with him, like before, and his heart warmed at that possibility.

Except that it wasn't the only thing that warmed. No, his eyes went to his chest, against which the pendant Castiel had given him all these years ago rested and felt the warmth seeping through his clothes, onto his skin, and a vision flashed.

Once again, he was seeing Castiel, once again he was seeing what the angel was doing and, for once, there was some additional information that could help Harry find him. It was just a road sign, but it indicated that it was in South Dakota.

When he came to once the vision had disappeared, he realized what he had been mission. It was the pendant, the pendant that allowed the visions and he knew that, as long as he hadn't found Castiel, they could come for him. The powers of the pendant were always surprising him, he never knew exactly what it could do but as it had been Castiel who had given it to him, he had never thought it could be dangerous. And maybe, just maybe, the visions didn't come from God. Maybe it was Castiel himself, without knowing. After all, Castiel had no way to know the punishment had been lifted; he had no way of knowing Harry had died since he wouldn't have been allowed to know anything about his former charge.

Well, that was going to change, Harry thought. _South_ _Dakota, here I come_.


	23. Spirits

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** The Winchester and Bobby can't find what happened in a haunted house. Harry helps.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 055. Spirits.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**055. Spirits.**

The Winchester brothers and Castiel were all reunited at Bobby's with the man himself. They had taken on a new mission. Well, the Winchesters had decided to take on this mission and they needed Bobby's help for it. Castiel was there because he had decided he wanted to watch Dean more closely and was trying to help out as much as he could, never going in too deep though. He had learnt his lesson about this, yet he didn't want anything to happen to his new protégé, knowing that a great destiny awaited him.

They were arguing, trying to decide what was happening and what to do. Well, the Winchesters and Bobby were arguing about the situation, while Castiel remained outside the argument, knowing more about what was going on than them and that the ideas they were bouncing right now weren't right. They weren't going against something tangibles or even against a ghost, but it was part of the spirit world, just a manifestation of something happening, not to a person but in a place.

It wasn't all that unusual, though somehow less frequent than the manifestation of angry spirits and beast that the Winchesters usual dealt with. They had gone against echoes in the past, but not all that often and they hadn't caught on the habit yet. It was more difficult to see, especially if they couldn't find out what had happened. Castiel would feel what had come to pass when he went to see the place they researched and it had been overwhelming.

"So, Cas'," Dean asked him. "What's going on in that place? You looked like you had seen a ghost."

Castiel sighed. Of course, Dean had noticed his trouble. It wasn't as if he had gone to great length to conceal what he had been feeling at the time, mostly because he wasn't exactly used to people noticing his change of mood anymore. It hadn't really happened since Harry, but now he seemed to have to be careful about it once again.

"There is an echo, there," he explained. "It's the echo of something that has happened in the past, an event that must have been very emotional for it to manifest so forcefully. The nature of the supernatural occurrence there make me think of something tragic and most likely violent, very violent. Maybe a murder, or a rape. Something that most certainly ruined people lives and continued to do so even without anyone there. It's like the house itself remember it. Maybe it manifest sometimes in the shape of a person but it isn't the spirit of the person, who must have either gone on in the afterlife or is still alive. The house chooses to manifest the remnant of the experience in the form of a person to have more impact, to recreate the scene maybe. I'm sure that for so many people to die inside this house, they must be attracted to it, maybe by seeing what has really happened there and, by the time they realized it's not actually happening for real, it's too late for them to leave. It seems most likely because human beings are attracted by tragedy, by violence."

It had been quite a long speech and all three hunters had been riveted to Castiel's lips for a while now. They understood what he meant, even though it wasn't exactly what they were used to deal with. They were more used to the manifestation of the people than the event but, yet, they could understand perfectly what was happening, there was just a little detail that didn't work in the reasoning.

"But we have looked into the archives," Sam said, frowning. "There is no mention of any form of tragedy or any event really. This house hasn't seen anything either strange or bad happening. Actually, there is no mention of this house except for the construction. It's almost as if the house has been constructed and then just forgotten."

Yes, it made sense that nothing about the house was present in the archives. There was something there that had reminded Castiel of magic and not the kind of magic he was used to deal with since he had been with Dean. It was the sort of magic that he had witnessed while taking care of Harry. The magic from the wizarding world, that came from inside the people themselves and not after a deal with the demons. Since the magical world stayed apart from the muggle world, if something had happened they would never find it in these archives. Even if the house was in a muggle place, there were just too many ways anything that had happened there may have been concealed. Castiel knew that maybe the neighbors themselves didn't realize the house had been inhabited at some point. It was very possible.

Now, how to explain this to the Winchesters and Bobby? How could he tell them about this whole new world they had never heard about before? Something that may change the way they looked at everything?

He was going to open his mouth to start with his explanation when another voice resonated in the house, a voice he never thought he would get to hear again but that he could, even though it had changed a little, recognize everywhere.

"That would be because you weren't looking in the right place. The archives of the wizarding world shows what has happened there," the person said, throwing quite a few newspapers on the table, on which they could see moving pictures.

"Harry".


	24. Star

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Bobby trusts Harry immediately. He has a reason.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 046. Star  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**046. Star.**

Bobby Singer had never been one to trust very easily, at least not since his wife's death. Anyone who actually met him once could testify. Even when he received people he had known since they were in diapers, like the Winchester boys, he would ask them to drink holy water just to be on the safe side. Some may have thought he was paranoid, but he knew that it could very well be the thing that would save his life and he wasn't going to just drop the habit.

Whenever he met someone new, someone he had never had the chance to encounter before in this business, he was careful. He was distrustful because he knew there was no way to ensure the way anything may end. Not all hunters were nice people. You had to be quite ruthless in that business and, sometimes, people took it too far. Like Gordon who ended up trying to kill Sam because he thought the kid was the antichrist, just because he possessed powers.

Bobby had never let anyone in without being damn thorough in their check out. It had saved his life and others before and everyone knew that, particularly Sam and Dean.

So when Bobby didn't even blink at Harry's unexpected appearance, seemingly out of nowhere, inside his house, telling them about the solution to their problems and knowing far too much about all of them for their peace of mind, they were surprised. When he didn't even try checking whether he was possessed or ask for information about who he was and what he was doing there, jaws were hanging. And when he immediately went for what Harry had proposed, pulling them all along, they were certain they had entered the twilight zone.

Of course, Bobby had a damn good reason for forgoing everything he usually did with unequaled diligence. And it wasn't only because the kid – and damn, Harry seemed so young – seemed to know their resident angel.

The pendant.

Bobby had booby-trapped the house better than a bloody war zone. There were enchantment all around, drawing on the floor and the walls – hell, even on the ceiling. He had protection charms and other gris-gris lying around and it wasn't only for decoration. It helped quite a lot with things like trapping demons, or just recognizing that they were demons, making sure his life wasn't put in danger while he was at home.

It also made the place damn hard to hide anything in. Especially something supernatural. So, of course, Harry's pendant had become quite visible to the rest of them.

Sam and Dean didn't know enough about angels and their mythology, their lives, their powers to know exactly what it meant. For them, it was just a star-shaped pendant that the guy was wearing and that seemed to glow just a little bit. It may have been somewhat strange but it really wasn't anything to wax poetic about.

For Bobby, though, it meant everything.

He knew very well what that pendant was, where it came from and how it was made. It wasn't that he was very religious, goodness no, but when Castiel had turned up, following Dean, he had made his mind to research about that world, more than he ever told the Winchester brothers. To his surprise, he had found quite a lot, enough to know what it signified for Harry to be wearing such an object.

A pendant made in Heaven. He had known about it but never dreamed he would ever see one of those. Still, he knew that for Harry to be wearing it, it meant that he was not going to harm them because the only reason he could stand the jewel was that his heart and soul were pure enough, that he didn't have what it took to be bad. He knew that, if Harry ever began to approach the line between good and evil, he wouldn't be able to stand wearing the pendant anymore and, at the moment, he really didn't seem uncomfortable, it was almost as if he wasn't registering it.

That was the very reason he didn't feel the need to do a complete interrogation of Harry and his intentions before putting his idea into practice. Oh, he was, no doubt, going to ask him some questions – he was a very curious man after all – but it could wait for things to quiet down.

Something told him that Harry was there to stay anyway. There was just something in the way he was looking at Castiel – an angel that seemed more than a little stunned to see Harry and that was sight Bobby never thought he would see – and that Castiel was looking at him once he had realized that the kid was really there that made him think the two of them were going to stay side by side for the moment. And since Castiel seemed determined to help the Winchesters – well, more to get the Winchesters to help him and helping them to keep them in sight – it made sense Harry would stay too.

All in all, it seemed to be a good situation to have another hunter present, even though he was magical. Now, he just had to tell Sam and Dean the signification of the star-shaped pendant hanging on around the kid's neck for them to see things the same way.


	25. Shades

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry and Castiel talk about Sam's powers.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 075. Shades.  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**075. Shades.**

Things had finally calmed for the very first time since Harry met up with the Winchesters and Bobby and reunited with Castiel. He was tired – he had to admit that he had lost the habits of keeping awake for so long, with so many things happening in so little time, in the months that had followed the last stand at Hogwarts – but he couldn't go to sleep right now, not when he finally had the chance to talk to Castiel alone.

The angel was waiting for him just outside the door of Bobby's house. He had known Harry was going to come to him and that the wizard would rather talk to him outside, where there was a lot less chance of someone overhearing the conversation. They may not have seen each other in quite a while; it didn't mean that Castiel had forgotten all about Harry and the way he thought, even if he had changed.

Harry sat down by Castiel's side on the steps of the house.

"Hey!" he said quietly, knowing the angel would have known of his appearance since the moment he had stepped outside, if not even before.

"Hello, Harry," Castiel answered, turning to him with the smile that had always made Harry feel warm inside, for as long as he remembered. "I still cannot believe my Lord has lifted the punishment."

Castiel admitted it with a wistful look. He had known for a very long time that his offense had been forgive, the Lord was forgiving, but he had never thought the punishment would end before Harry was in his last home.

"I think He knew from start it wasn't going to last until my last day on Earth. Something tell me that my dying and coming back had been planned from start."

Castiel nodded. He knew that Harry was right. The Lord had known that Harry had a great destiny awaiting him – Uriel had told him that the night he had given him his mission – and while a lot of what happened to human beings was determined by free will and therefore unpredictable, some things were bound to happen and Harry's miraculous resurrection was probably one of them.

"You have chosen to put yourself in another war," Castiel stated and he was still a bit surprised about it even thought he knew that Harry would never have been able to stand by or walk away to see innocents die without doing anything to help. "Wouldn't you have preferred a quiet life?"

Harry shrugged.

"I'm not really sure I'm made for a quiet life," Harry admitted. "I think I wouldn't last very long before getting bored. Beside, someone obviously wanted me there. I watched so much of Sam and Dean's lives that I couldn't not help them. They are so brave, so determined to make things right. They are great people and I think… I think I will enjoy working with them."

Castiel smiled. Yes, that sounded like the Harry he had known when he was a kid. Yet, he also knew that while the young wizard was right about Dean being all that, Sam was walking a dangerous path. Oh, he also all of these things Harry mentioned but he wasn't sure things were going to stay that way if he went on using his powers. He said at much to Harry.

He was in for a surprise when it turned out the young man didn't seem to agree with him.

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I know that powers can corrupt and that Sam's powers come from a demon but, in the end, it's not where they come from that's important, at least not since he didn't go looking for them. What matters is how he uses them, the intent he has when he does."

Harry knew that, he knew that better than anyone after what he had seen, after what he had done. Castiel was an angel and, as such, lived in absolute. If your power came from God himself, they could only be good but from a demon? That meant evil. And while Castiel didn't think Sam was evil, Harry realized he thought the man was on the path to become just that because he refused to stop using his powers and had a demon showing him how.

"Harry, you don't know that. He will fall if he continues to use them."

Harry shook his head.

"Not necessarily. There is a risk, yes, but Sam is perfectly aware of it and, from what I've seen, he's careful. These powers are a part of him, whether he wants it or not. He can use them; he just has to be careful. We all have the potential to be evil," Harry continued, the 'we' being the human race of course. "No matter what powers we have or not, but it's a choice in the end. And for now, Sam is choosing the right path, with full use of his abilities. He uses them for good. That's what matters."

"These powers are evil, they come from the demons," Castiel argued, surprised at Harry's vehemence and his speech.

Of course, he knew that he didn't really know the young wizard anymore, not after all these years. He had disappeared at a point in Harry's life were changes were inevitable, even more considering the war he had been thrown into. He didn't know what had happened in his life that would have shaped his system of beliefs a whole new way, even if he still knew his soul. There were events that had defined him that he ignored completely and he had a feeling he was going to learn about some of them very soon.

"Do you think I'm evil, Castiel? Or that I'm on the path of becoming evil?" Harry asked.

He already knew the answer to his question of course. The answer would be no. Harry knew Castiel couldn't see him as evil, not only because he knew him far too well but also because of the pendant that would subdue any doubt anyone may have.

"Of course not!" Castiel exclaimed, not believe his protégé would ask him that. "Harry, your powers… It's different and you know it."

Harry nodded.

"Yes, I know that. But I'm not talking about my powers in general. I'm talking about some of the things I've had to do in order to kill Voldemort and ensure he stayed dead. I'm talking about days spent looking through the darkest book you can imagine. I'm talking about having to use one of the most dangerous necromancy rituals known to be able to walk into hell and not be bothered by demons. I'm talking about surrounding myself with a magic so dark even the devil himself would be frightened".

Harry stopped for a second, looking at Castiel who seemed shell-shocked and more than a little paler than usual. Of course, Harry knew the reason for his shock. It seemed to unlike the boy he had been when fourteen. Of course, that was a long time ago and he would never be that boy again but, for Castiel, there hadn't be any transition.

"I've done these things. I've done them, reluctantly, but it hasn't changed me. I'm still on the good side. I'm still fighting on the same side as you. Yes, I've used powers and spells that would make Sam's powers seem ridiculously harmless. It's not your abilities that make you good or evil, it's your choices," he said, remembering the words of an old wizard. "Sam is trying his best to make sure no one dies and he uses his powers for that single reason. He's not going to become evil, not as long as he can remember that, not as long as there are people around him that remind him of who he is."

Harry finished his speech and quiet down, waiting for Castiel to react.

"You were in hell. I… I went there to get Dean out and I felt…. I felt as if you were close to me and I thought it was strange, just wishful thinking on my part, but you were actually there, at the same time."

Harry thought back about that day and realized it must have been the reason the pendant had seemed to warm, because Castiel was just nearby and he nodded.

"Yes."

Castiel closed his eyes.

"I get what you mean and I know that you are right but Sam is sliding down a dark path. Ruby is not the right choice for a teacher."

Harry could understand that. Learning how to use these powers from a demon, no matter how good-willed Ruby seemed to be at the moment, was just asking for trouble.

"Then we will teach him. I can, I know how to use powers that resemble his and you can watch over, make sure he isn't falling. But he has to use them. They are a part of him, and that's not going to change anytime soon."

Castiel smiled at that, recognizing Harry's stubbornness and knowing there was no way he would change the young wizard's mind. He realized he didn't really mind. Of course, Harry would be a better teacher for Sam than Ruby could ever be. And, as for the rest of Harry's revelation, they would have to talk about it but only after the young wizard got some sleep because he could see the tiredness into the two green orbs.

"You should go to sleep, Harry," Castiel said. "We will have time to talk tomorrow."

Harry looked at Castiel and acquiesced. Yes, they had all the time in the world now.


	26. Teammates

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry muses about his new teammates.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 026. Teammates  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**026. Teammates.**

In the weeks that followed Harry's unexpected arrival at Bobby's, he felt himself becoming closer to the Winchesters, falling into a relationship that resembled the one he had with some of the members of the DA. They weren't exactly friends, they didn't know each other well enough, even if they were slowly heading that way, but they were teammates.

It deepened even more when Harry took on the role of the teacher with Sam, helping him understand how to use his powers in a way that Ruby hadn't been able to, letting the human part of him take over what the demon had gifted him with, changing what it felt like. Harry knew that Sam could feel the difference, becoming more at ease with his powers, now that he didn't have to battle with himself so much in order to avoid falling into the abyss.

It changed him. Not a lot, and neither Harry nor Castiel could really see it. They hadn't known Sam long enough. Dean though, was beginning to see the little brother he'd had before all that drama with his deal with the devil, except for the fact that he was no longer afraid of his powers. He was finally the old Sam he had always been and for that alone Dean would have considered Harry an ally – if not flat out a friend.

Harry had immersed himself into this new world, learning more about the type of demons they were fighting, mostly from Bobby who was more than happy to be able to pass on his knowledge once again, the way he did once upon a time for Sam and Dean, whenever their father let them with him before they were old enough for the hunt. Bobby could see the difference, though. Harry was already a warrior; he could see in his eyes that Harry had seen things that would make his skin crawl.

Harry hadn't told anyone but Castiel about his walk in hell. He knew it wasn't a good topic; especially with Dean having spent quite some time there himself. They probably didn't want to remember that time. He could understand. He would rather forget what he'd seen there himself and he hadn't suffered at all. He had barely gone there to get something and had no problem getting out. Yet, what he had seen was etched into his mind and he would never willingly put his new teammates through the pain of reminiscing about it.

All in all, he found out he was in a good place. He felt useful once again, in a way he hadn't felt since the end of the war. He wondered if the fact he would rather risk his life on a regular basis than live the normal life he'd once dreamed of made him insane or not but he knew it was in his blood and that he would get bored otherwise. It was really ridiculous, but he seemed to be condemned to a life of fighting and he couldn't be happier about it.

Of course, the downside was the near-constant presence of Ruby. It wasn't that he didn't like her. From what he had been able to see, she was nice enough – at least most of the time. He could see that she genuinely wanted to help, even if he couldn't really understand her motives. It didn't meant that he didn't feel uncomfortable around her. It wasn't the things she did, it was her nature. He could feel the demon and it made him uneasy.

Yet, he had never discriminated against a species and he was not going to begin now. He realized soon enough that she wasn't evil but that she wasn't good either. She was sort of a neutral ground. She had what it took to be good, she could also become evil to a point he could barely imagine. She was the only one able to decide which side of her would win.

For now, it seemed that it was her good side that had the upper hand. Harry could see that it was because she hadn't been a demon all that long; she hadn't had time to completely forget her humanity yet. Because that what was she had been, long before she had made a deal with the devil to get her powers: human. She could still feel her human soul, knowing that in the end it would not matter. Her nature would win over, even if it was centuries from now.

He talked about it with Castiel, the way he talked with him about everything. Except that,unlike when he had been a child, he had opinions of his own now and it seemed they weren't always on par with the angel's. It didn't change the love between them, Castiel would never forsake Harry just because he didn't have the same opinion, but it made the angel think on a different angle and, sometimes, his own opinions seemed to switch.

Yet, during his many conversations with Castiel, especially those which revolved around Ruby, Harry realized that the angel couldn't see the good into her because she was a demon and it was against angels' nature to see demons as anything but evil, Harry understood something regardingCastiel's punishment.

He finally became aware of God's reason to separate them. Castiel, being so close to Harry, would have influenced the young wizard's opinion too much. If Castiel had never been taken away from him, Harry would have ended up with a very similar vision, the one of good and evil and no real space in between. God himself had instilled that belief in his angels but He also knew that Harry, to be able to vanquish Voldemort and accomplish his destiny, would have to see the shades of grey and the only solution was to force some distance between Harry and Castiel.


	27. Earth

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Castiel realizes he has been spending quite a lot of time on Earth.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 053. Earth  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**053. Earth.**

It took Castiel moths to realize what everyone around him had noticed before him. He was puzzled by how clueless he had been, wondering how he could have missed it. He should have seen it. Actually, to be perfectly honest, he shouldn't have had to see it because it never should have been happening and, yet, he couldn't dismiss the fact. He had no choice but to admit it: he had been spending more and more time on Earth.

The Winchesters had been the first to notice it. Of course, they had been the ones who had had the most contact with Castiel since Dean's return from Hell. It was easier for them to notice that while he had showed up for moments at time before, to help them when something was happening, he had been spending more time with them since Harry had joined them. He would be there for days before he decided to disappear for a little while and he would always come back before long. It was a surprise to them, but they didn't think too much about it because, with Lucifer's army approaching, they needed all the help they could get and Castiel, being an angel, was on top of the list.

Bobby had realized it too. It had taken him a little bit longer because he had rarely been in contact with Castiel before and had, therefore, not been aware immediately that it wasn't how he used to do things. Still, he knew from what he had discovered during his research that angels as a whole didn't spend all that much time with their charges. They usually came to them in time of need but Castiel had spent some quiet moments, long quiet moments, with Harry from start and he was beginning to see it wasn't quite a normal angel-charge relationship between the two of them, even if they didn't seem to realize it. Or, should he say, one of them didn't seem to realize it.

Because Harry had seen the change. Of course, when he had been a kid, Castiel had spent lot of time with him, but it was usually either because Harry had called him, having something on his mind that he wanted to discuss with Castiel, or because he had been in danger at the time and the angel had arrived in time to save him. Yet, he had never stayed days in a row, especially not when there wasn't anything at all was going on. Harry didn't comment on it to Castiel, but he couldn't have helped noticing the change. He just wanted it to stay that way.

It wasn't only on Earth that someone noticed. In Heaven, too. Uriel was one of them. He already knew that his Lord was aware of what was going on and didn't seem to want to put a stop to it. God must have had his reason and Uriel would never question it but he knew that Castiel's behavior was not normal for a guardian angel.

The moment Harry had found Castiel and reunited with him, Uriel had realized just how much the wizard still cared about his angel. It had puzzled him. Normally, humans didn't really give a damn about them when they weren't there, protecting them. Harry, though, had made sure to come back to Castiel even years after the last time he had seen him. It was a devotion that was practically unheard of when it came to humanity.

Of course, he had been made aware years ago that Harry wasn't just your average human being. However, he had never expected to see the wizard go to these lengths.

Still, it didn't change the fact that Castiel was taking great risk. Once again, Uriel could see that the angel was getting too attached. Actually, he could see he was getting even closer to Harry than the first time around. His feelings for the young man were beginning to change. From his position, Uriel could see the evolution in Castiel and knew exactly where he was headed, even thought the younger angel didn't seem to realize it. He knew that, one way or another, it would all too soon come to an end and he could only hope that Castiel would not come to regret the inevitable outcome.

For his part, Castiel finally became aware of it after months. He knew he should have been afraid of what it meant. He knew he should have been scared that he had come to spend much more time on Earth than in Heaven. It should not be possible for an angel but, every time he was in Heaven, he just felt a pull, felt the need to come back to Harry because he was missing him. It wasn't supposed to work that way. It wasn't a feeling that angels should experience but it was the case and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He knew that, he knew that better than anyone.

So, with that in mind, he went on spending more and more time by Harry's side, having the good excuse to help the hunters prepare for the unavoidable fight against the forces of Lucifer, which were coming closer and closer to be able to walk in this world. Most of the seals were already broken and there was no way the fallen angel would give up so close to the end.

The Winchesters, Bobby, Harry, himself… All of them were working hard, knowing the end was near. And Castiel could not help the nagging feeling inside of him, telling him that something was going to happen soon, something big, something else than the fight and he didn't know whether he should be afraid of it or not. He could only pray it would not end in tears.


	28. Death

**Title:** Touched by an Angel  
**Author:** loonie_lupin  
**Fandom:** HP, SPN  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** Harry tries to make sense of what's going on as his life is slipping away.  
**For: crossovers100  
Prompt:** 030. Death  
**Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.

Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.

**030. Death.**

Harry was feeling as if his head was full of cotton. He could only see a blur of images, nothing really clear, hear sounds that evidently belonged to a war zone, all around him. It took him back to his time at Hogwarts except… except it seemed worse. The war was one of a greater importance, even though they were once again standing in a field, far away from any civilization, from anything else. It was a good thing though; it was the only way no bystanders would be injured.

He was on the ground, either sitting down or maybe lying down. Yes, he was lying down, that had to be it. Because he could see the sky above him. Barely, there was so much smoke and fire… like a rain of fire. Yet, he could see through it all. It was a nice night, he mused distractedly. There was no clouds, no rain, just an endless sky filled with an infinity of stars. He could see them

Instinctively, his eyes moved to see his own star, the star he had decided to claim at the end of his fifth year. Sirius. Every time he had needed some guidance after his godfather's death, he had looked up in the sky to find the dog star and had talked to it, as if he was talking to the man himself. It had been nice. It had been as if Sirius had never left and now, he could feel himself do it once again.

He was wondering how he had ended up there. Oh, it wasn't any kind of existential question. He wasn't asking himself about why he was on Earth, or even why he was in the midst of a battle. No, he was wondering the reason he was lying down there, when he could clearly hear the fight still raging beside him. No, not beside him. It was strange, minutes ago it seemed that his ears were filled with screams and drumming and fighting but now it was as if the sounds were coming from far away in the distance.

Had the battle moved?

He could feel his eyes beginning to close but he fought against the exhaustion. It wasn't the time to go to sleep. Yet, he was lying down. Why was he lying down? He was trying to remember but he could only see flashes behind his eyes, flashes of monsters' faces, flashes of parrying move, flashes of spell he, himself had used against his opponents, flashes of metal, the weapons used by some of their enemies.

He was feeling light. It was as if his body had no more mass, wasn't weighting anything. He couldn't even feel it anymore, he realized distantly. It was as if he was in a dream. There was no pain but his mind was telling him that he must have been in pain at some point because it was the only reason he would be lying there instead of fighting with the rest of them. Yet, no, there was nothing.

Another flashes and he suddenly remembered the blade, the sharpest one he had ever seen, as sharp as the one he knew Ruby had used once or twice. In should have hurt, Harry told himself as he remembered it slashing his flesh, tearing his body apart. He should have been feeling the wounds but he didn't.

He mustered the strength to move his hand from the ground to his stomach and, while there was no hurting, he could feel the blood coating his hand, see the redness seeing through his finger as he lifted them in front of his eyes.

Oh. That would explain it, then.

He was bleeding and quite a lot by the look of it. He had a feeling he should be scared but he wasn't. He wasn't feeling anything but a sort of peace which, considering the circumstances and the war raging close by, was strange and a very bad sign, he realized.

The last time he had died, it had been immediate. He hadn't felt a thing, had just seen a flash of green light and them, he was dead. This time, though, he could feel his life slipping away from him. It was bad, very bad but it didn't hurt. It was as if he was feeling asleep, just as his father had told him when he had used the Stone. He had been right.

He closed his eyes, only for a second, but when he opened them again, everything had changed. It was bright, so bright. He didn't really understand because it was still nighttime and he could still see the battlefield and the soldiers with their weapon but it was as if there was a screen in front of it, a filter. It was like a window he could see through but were an image was painted on.

The window showed a sunny place, a place that was becoming clearer, until he could make out what it was exactly.

King's Cross.

He could see King's Cross, not the way it had been when he had boarded on the Hogwarts express to go to school, but as it had been when he had talked to Dumbledore for the very last time. In that second, he knew.

He was on the verge of dying.


	29. Blue

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** As he lays dying, Harry sees Castiel's eyes and everything inside them**.  
****For: **crossovers100  
******Prompt:** 015. Blue**  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own. I'm now reposting the chapters 1 to 28 with her modifications.

**015. Blue.**

Blue. Shockingly blue.

Harry was still rambling mentally about the situation he was in, about how he had come to be there exactly, half-seeing the battle raging, half-seeing the crossroad he knew to be part of the afterlife, when his whole vision was invaded by two magnificent orbs of the bluest shade ever.

Castiel.

Harry was unable to contain the smile that graced his lips, even given the situation. If there was one thing he had always wanted before dying, it was to see Castiel one last time. If the angel was his latest vision, he could die happy. Castiel had been there for him all throughout his life, even when he wasn't physically, so it was only fair for him to be there for his last moments on Earth.

Heaven.

That was the very thing he could see when he looked inside Castiel's eyes. He could literally see Heaven, the Heaven he remembered from the time he had dreamed of it, thanks to his guardian angel. Now, he could see it once again, reflected into Castiel's eyes.

It looked as beautiful as he could remember it. It seemed so peaceful, so calm, and he couldn't help thinking that vision was at home in Castiel's eyes, as if they were made to reflect this paradise. He had always associated Castiel and Heaven and now the two intertwined in a manner that made him unable to distinguish one from the other. It was almost poetic.

"Harry," Castiel whispered and the wizard could hear his voice breaking.

Harry was almost startled by that. Not the fact that Castiel had spoken, he had been expecting it, but the emotions in his voice. That was what brought him back to reality, far away from the perspective of Heaven, to properly look at what was going on around him before looking back into the angel's eyes, not seeing Heaven anymore but only Castiel.

Emotions.

There were so many emotions swimming in these blue eyes. He could see the love, the love he had first seen as a child, the love that had made him go on, that had made him cling to life with both hands, even when he was suffering so much that all anyone would have ever wanted had they been in his place would be death. A love so pure than only an angel could be capable of such feeling.

He could see the pain. The pain of seeing someone you loved dying, suffering and he could remember seeing that in Castiel's eyes before. It had been at the beginning of that fateful summer, after Cedric's death, before they were separated. He could remember seeing it when he had been sobbing his heart out in Castiel's arm and the angel had tried desperately to make him smile, to calm his grief and sorrow, to assuage his guilt.

It was an emotion he could understand the angel feeling when he was suffering but why now? He wasn't in pain. He was dying so why would the angel be in pain? After all, Castiel should not be grieving for his death, not when he knew Heaven awaited him afterwards. It was strange, very strange.

Trying to understand the reason behind this, Harry could only look more profoundly and what he saw, finally, almost made him gasp out loud.

Love.

What he could see in the depth of these eyes was love. Not the same kind he had seen at first, but another kind of love. It wasn't one he had ever seen in Castiel's eyes, yet he remembered seeing it more than once in Ginny's, before they had realized that they wouldn't work. It was the love only a human could feel towards another. It wasn't an emotion an angel was supposed to know, it wasn't a love as pure as the love of a guardian angel to his charge. Harry finally understood what he had missed before.

Castiel didn't only love him. He was in love with him.

Harry realized that it was what had changed. It must have been very gradual, beginning from when he came back. It must have been happening as Castiel spent more and more time around him. The angel must have begun to develop these feelings, had begun to become more _human_. And yet, Castiel had probably never understood it because how could he have seen he was becoming subject to human emotions, to a particular human emotion that no angel could have ever felt.

And Harry's eyes filled with tears at the realization that, as surely as he was slowly losing his life, Castiel was slowly losing his grace.


	30. Birth

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** When Castiel's tears fall, everything changes**.  
****For: **crossovers100  
******Prompt:** 029. Birth**  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**029. Birth.**

Castiel had been fighting alongside his charges for hours now, the way he had always planned to do. From the very beginning, he had promised himself he would stay at Sam and Dean's side when the fight came to them. Then Harry had appeared, choosing to stay to help before and during the battle, and Castiel knew there was no way he would ever break his promise after that, not with Harry in the middle of danger.

He had lost sight of the wizard in the middle of the battle, which was hardly surprising considering everything that was going on. It would have been too difficult to concentrate solely on one person and still be able to fight and protect everyone. No, he hadn't been capable of it and had not even realized it until he heard something.

A cry. It was a cry in his head and knew it could only be Harry, Harry who was unconsciously using the powers of the pendant as a channel to communicate mentally with the angel. Suddenly, it was as if his heart had stopped beating. He had to find Harry, had to find him before it was too late because he knew that kind of desperation only happened when someone was touched mortally.

He looked around frantically until his eyes rested on the lying form of the wizard and, then, he ran toward him, not caring about the battle anymore. It was slowly dying down anyway, the side of light seemingly headed toward à victory. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to care. He only had eyes for Harry.

He skidded to a halt in front of Harry and let himself fall upon his knees, looking at him from his place.

"Harry," he whispered and he heard his own voice breaking in a way it had never done before.

He could see the injury. It was bad, really bad. He could see the blood running slowly out of Harry's body, taking away his life force irremediably. The wizard that had seemed miles away from him before came back, his eyes burning into Castiel's as if trying to read him and whatever he saw made tears come into the green orbs.

"Harry," Castiel repeated, not sure about what to say.

Harry was dying. That much was clear and it shouldn't be so sad, Castiel reflected. Harry would soon be in Heaven, with his Lord so he should be happy for him, even though it was normal for him to feel a pang in his heart. But what he was feeling at the moment was not just a touch of sadness. No, it was the worst pain he had ever felt.

Grief.

Was that grief? Was that what Harry had felt these nights when he had cried himself into sleep after his friend's death? If so, he had a newfound respect for Harry, knowing the desperation he must have been feeling. He could also understand why some people were driven to take their own life. He didn't know how it was possible to live with so much pain inside.

A sob erupted from the depth of his throat and Harry looked more sharply at him, yet Castiel was unable to really see it, not with the tears clouding his vision. He had cried once over Harry before, when he'd had to leave Privet Drive, knowing he would never see his charge again but it had been silent tears for a short time. He had known that Harry would live on and that he had to let him be happy.

This time, though, it was hardly the same. Harry would not have a life after this. He was going to die and Castiel was absolutely helpless in the face of it. There were no peaceful tears sliding down his cheeks, it was a storm that was caught in his throat, threatening to erupt and he knew it would not take long before he wouldn't be able to control it anymore.

"Castiel," Harry whispered, as if it took way too much strength to talk normally – and maybe it did.

He lifted his hand, raising it to the angel's cheek, stroking it slowly. It was not a big gesture, but he wanted to bring what little comfort he could to the one who had held him during what felt like his whole life. It was breaking his heart to see the pain etched into Castiel's face, especially knowing what was going to happen to him because he knew, deep inside, what was going on.

Yet, the little move, as minuscule as it was, was enough to break the dam and Castiel finally released the tears, sobbing. The droplets flowed helplessly on his cheeks, unbidden, and his chest was heaving. He had never felt this before, had never felt that kind of pain and how could people feel so strongly all the time and not go crazy? How could they live with these kinds of feelings?

He was so helpless, so useless. He needed to do something, needed to anything to make himself feel useful. He may not be able to save Harry, no, but there was still something he could do to make his passing more peaceful. Approaching slowly from his face, he once again did the one act he was punished for the very first time around and pressed his lips slowly to Harry's.

He would make Harry see Heaven once again so the transition to the other side could be done with this image in mind. He just wanted Harry to be able to feel this peace at the moment and he didn't care about the consequences for himself. No punishment could ever feel worse than the pain he was feeling in that particular moment anyway.

As he slowly drew back from Harry's lip, his tears dropped onto the wizard's face, onto his lips and, automatically, Harry's tongue slipped out to lich them, tasting the salty substance and he felt something.

Something strange.

He didn't know what it was but he could feel a warmth spreading inside his body, a warmth he had never really felt before and he heard Castiel's shocked gasp at his side as his own breathing seemed less demanding suddenly. He could feel his strength return to him, his head clear, the wounds he could now feel disappearing and he didn't understand. He didn't understand but he knew that he was going to live, that he had been given yet another chance.

It was a rebirth for him but, as he looked at Castiel and the fading glow that surrounded him, he couldn't help wondering at what price?


	31. Fall

******Title:** Touched by an Angel**  
****Author:** loonie_lupin**  
****Fandom:** HP, SPN**  
****Rating:** PG**  
****Summary:** No matter the consequences, Castiel could not bring himself to regret it.  
******For: **crossovers100  
******Prompt:** 064. Fall.**  
****Disclaimer:** The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing**.**

Thanks to **dixid **who read through the story to correct my mistakes. If some are left, they are my own.

**064. Fall.**

The war had ended. The battlefield was calm once again. There was some moaning from the injured but no demon was left and the army of God had prevailed before retreating to their home. Lucifer had been sent to hell once more and would probably not be able to come back for a very long time. No one in God's army had any doubt he would be back but it would take time, centuries, probably. It could even be millennia but they knew they would have to be prepared once again.

In the midst of the slowly clearing atmosphere, Castiel and Harry were still, two human-shaped statue, almost untouched by what was going on around them. They could see it but it didn't really register. They were much too preoccupied by all of what had happened in so little time.

Harry was sitting down; his stab wound to the stomach just a distance memory, his cut shirt showing only virgin skin where they should have been a gashing injury. Yet, he had been healed. In the space of a few seconds, what should have been a moral wound had been healed, almost like with phoenix tears. Except that the tears hadn't belonged to a phoenix and they hadn't touched the wound but his lips.

Castiel felt strange. He could feel the overwhelming happiness of Harry's surviving and miracle recovery. He wasn't all that sure himself of what had happened but he wasn't going to think too much about it. Yet, he was also full of feelings which had never inhabited him before. The love he felt for Harry was different. It was as if something had shifted inside of him.

Yet, when the next feeling took hold of his body, he knew what had happened.

Cold.

He was cold, so cold. Of course, it made sense for the weather to be cold. Since the fight had ended, the night had gone back to what it had been before and they were in the middle of the winter. It was normal for it to be cold but Castiel was not supposed to feel it. Angels didn't feel the cold or the heat. They just didn't.

The realization was slowly creeping inside of him but he couldn't process things, not just yet. It was difficult, he just couldn't understand.

Harry could see the emotions showing on Castiel's face and his friend looked oh so very lost it almost broke his heart, especially knowing what had happened. He couldn't help feeling responsible for it. Should he have stayed away from Castiel instead of coming back to him?

"Castiel?" Harry asked quietly, making him look at him head on.

"I'm cold, Harry," Castiel answered.

Harry nodded and put a hand on Castiel's torso. He wasn't wearing his faithful overcoat anymore and his shirt was torn but he could feel the warm body. He didn't feel as warm as usually but he wasn't trying to feel his temperature. He merely wanted to feel the heartbeat, a heartbeat much quicker than usual, probably because of the confusion.

"You're human," Harry whispered, finally putting it in words.

Castiel nodded slowly. Yes, he was human. He had fallen from grace and he knew it must have happened at the moment when he had cried for Harry, sobbing and kissing him. The moment he had irremediably fallen in love with him and turned his back on Heaven, once more breaking the rules.

His Lord had handed the punishment with telling him this time, a final punishment. He had stripped his grace away from him. Yet, even in his harshness, he had been merciful. Castiel knew he shouldn't have kept his memory, he should have found himself amnesic, but all his memories were intact, one last mercy from his Lord.

"I'm sorry, Castiel," he heard Harry whisper and saw the tears in the boy's eyes.

Castiel smiled softly, understanding what his charge – former charge was feeling.

"It's not your fault, Harry," he reassured him. "I… I broke the rules so many times. I care about you in a way I was never supposed to. A way I shouldn't have been able to."

He stopped, blushing slightly at what he had just admitted before continuing when he didn't see anything but warm affection in the green eyes of the wizard.

"You didn't make me do these things. I chose to do them. And even knowing this, even knowing my Lord's punishment for my actions, I don't regret. And I would do it all over again."

And Harry, eyes shining with love and joy, his hand still on Castiel's heart, smiled blindingly at him.


End file.
